🌙 Moon rocks: A little piece of heaven

As the last manned mission on the moon was drawing to a close in 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan spotted a large chunk of rock sitting near their lunar module and, feeling poetic, decided to to take it home. “It’s a rock composed of many fragments, of many sizes, and many sizes and shapes—and even colors—that have grown together to become a cohesive rock, outlasting the nature of space, sort of living together in a very coherent, very peaceful manner…”[Cernan told Houston](. “We hope that this will be a symbol of what our feelings are … and a symbol of mankind: that we can live in peace and harmony in the future.” US president Richard Nixon distributed fragments of the “goodwill rock” to representatives of 135 countries and 50 states, as he’d done three years earlier with Apollo 11 moon rocks. (Soviet missions also returned with such samples.) You’d think such a souvenir would be easy to keep track of, but today about [180 are missing]( lost, sold to private collectors, sometimes listed on the black market for millions. Occasionally they reappear in obscure places: [Bill Clinton’s gubernatorial archives]( a [desk drawer]( at North Carolina’s Department of Commerce, [a dentist’s shelf](. And for one Texas lawyer, the search to recover them has become an obsession. Let’s join the hunt. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( [Quartz Obsession] Moon rocks January 03, 2019 Taking up space --------------------------------------------------------------- As the last manned mission on the moon was drawing to a close in 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan spotted a large chunk of rock sitting near their lunar module and, feeling poetic, decided to to take it home. “It’s a rock composed of many fragments, of many sizes, and many sizes and shapes—and even colors—that have grown together to become a cohesive rock, outlasting the nature of space, sort of living together in a very coherent, very peaceful manner…”[Cernan told Houston](. “We hope that this will be a symbol of what our feelings are … and a symbol of mankind: that we can live in peace and harmony in the future.” US president Richard Nixon distributed fragments of the “goodwill rock” to representatives of 135 countries and 50 states, as he’d done three years earlier with Apollo 11 moon rocks. (Soviet missions also returned with such samples.) You’d think such a souvenir would be easy to keep track of, but today about [180 are missing]( lost, sold to private collectors, sometimes listed on the black market for millions. Occasionally they reappear in obscure places: [Bill Clinton’s gubernatorial archives]( a [desk drawer]( at North Carolina’s Department of Commerce, [a dentist’s shelf](. And for one Texas lawyer, the search to recover them has become an obsession. Let’s join the hunt. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( Go deeper with Quartz membership --------------------------------------------------------------- Nearly 50 years after the first human landing on the moon, a combination of government scientists, private-sector engineers, and startup entrepreneurs are again gazing skyward, thinking about how a return to the moon would happen, and what we would find when we got there. Dive into this week’s member-exclusive field guide to understand how the new space race, driven both by economic and geopolitical concerns, will shape the future of our world and beyond. [Explore membership]( Reuters/NASA By the digits [2,415:]( Moon rock samples collected during all of the Apollo missions [842:]( Total pounds those samples weighed [1,000:]( Years that Building 31 North, in which NASA keeps its moon rocks, can withstand water submersion [$855,000:]( Amount for which a Soviet sample sold at a Sotheby’s auction [400:]( Approximate number of samples NASA loans out every year for research [$5 million:]( Value typically attributed to a moon rock [2:]( Moon rock stings that have occurred at Denny’s locations Brief history Where have all the moon rocks gone? --------------------------------------------------------------- The Apollo 11 and 17 goodwill moon rocks aren’t the only lunar samples that are unaccounted for. “NASA has lost or misplaced more than 500 of the Moon rocks its Apollo astronauts collected and brought back to Earth,” [writes Denise Chow at Space.com](. In many cases, the rocks—which were loaned to museums, educators, and other institutions—were simply lost. Others fell victim to the overdue library book shame spiral. “[W]e learned of one researcher who still had lunar samples he had borrowed 35 years ago on which he had never conducted research,” [writes]( inspector general Paul K. Martin in a NASA report. And a handful have been pilfered. In 1986, [a NASA van]( belonging to the agency’s education program was stolen and set on fire. It contained an Apollo 14 space suit (which burned) and moon rock samples (which were lifted and never recovered). Separately, in 2002, an aspiring astronaut and a few NASA interns used their knowledge of the Johnson Space Center’s security flaws to steal a safe containing 101 grams of moon rocks and other space materials valued at [$21 million](. The FBI arrested the suspects and recovered the rocks during a [sting operation]( at an Italian restaurant in Orlando, Florida. Reuters/Yves Herman Pop Quiz When Sara Arsenault of the Montreal Science Centre transported a piece of 3.8 billion-year-old moon rock to her museum, what did she carry it in? Lunch boxBaby slingNPR tote bagCello case Correct. Arsenault was so anxious about transporting the rock that she missed her first return flight. “I was so worried I'd forget it in a taxi or something," she told Space.com. Incorrect. If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. Fun fact! If you’ve ever touched a moon rock, like those at the Kennedy Space Center, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and Space Center Houston, it probably came from [Moon Rock 70215]( which was chosen because it was [big and fine-grained]( (so it wouldn’t wear down from decades of fingertips). Giphy This one weird trick! Ask (for) the dust --------------------------------------------------------------- Except for the specimens attained by an unmanned Soviet mission [auctioned off by Sotheby’s]( moon rocks are contraband. But there are legal options if you want a piece of the moon. NASA hasn’t cracked down on dust, which has made it back to earth on spacesuits and in bags. It’ll set you back a lot, or a whole lot, depending on the provenance: Apollo 15 samples have gone from [$995 to $300,000](. The other option is lunar meteorites knocked to Earth by an impact. Boston-based RR Auctions recently sold a [12-pound one for $612,500]( and a smaller one for over $45,000. If you’d prefer to find your own, be warned that none have ever been found in [North America, South America, or Europe](. Before NASA went to the Moon, it tried to get [Midwestern farmers and students]( to find lunar meteorites; but the first weren’t found until 1979 in Antarctica. You might be able to find one of the goodwill fragments in Ireland, though—if you’re willing to dig through [a couple decades of trash in Dublin’s Dunsink dump](. Have a friend who would enjoy our Obsession with Moon rocks? [ [Forward link to a friend](mailto:?subject=Thought you'd enjoy.&body=Read this Quartz Obsession email – to the email – Giphy History lesson What have we learned from moon rocks? --------------------------------------------------------------- 1) Earth was blasted by a supernova Radioactive iron discovered in moon rocks suggest that a supernova—a powerful explosion from a dying star—assaulted the Earth about 2 million years ago. The stellar explosion “could have influenced life on Earth by disrupting global climate and even triggering mass extinctions,” [Charles Q. Choi writes for Space.com.]( 2) Asteroids pummeled Earth 3.9 billion years ago Since there’s no weathering on the moon, the rocks there can provide [clues]( about Earth’s early history that we simply can’t find here at home. Isotopic dating, for example, has provided insights into the [Late Heavy Bombardment]( cataclysmic period when asteroids pummeled the inner planets—suggesting that the assault may have helped [life form](. 3) The moon contains water Analysis shows that there’s water on the moon—“not liquid water,” according to [the University of Hawaii]( “but water trapped in volcanic glasses or chemically bound in mineral grains inside lunar rocks.” Studying how this water got there has helped scientists understand how water might have formed on Earth. Person of interest The Elliot Ness of moon rocks --------------------------------------------------------------- Joseph Gutheinz Jr. is a moon rock hunter. The lawyer and former NASA agent was tasked with setting up undercover sting operations to bust counterfeit moon rock sales in the mid-1990s. As bait, he placed an advertisement in USA Today stating: “Moon Rocks Wanted” and then waited for the con artists to call. One respondent, though, came to Gutheinz with something even better. “What I did not anticipate was that a person with the real thing, the Honduras Goodwill Moon rock, would call me,” [Gutheinz tells Mark Bosworth at the BBC](. They set up a meeting at [a Denny’s near the Miami airport]( where the man offered it for $5 million. After a court battle, the rock was eventually seized. (Naturally, [Ross Perot got involved]( Today, Gutheinz teaches at the University of Phoenix, where students help him hunt for missing and stolen moon rocks. So far, he says he’s tracked down at least 77 specimens. take me down this 🐰hole In the Atavist, [Joe Kloc dives deep]( into the saga of the Honduras moon rock. Reuters/Swoan Parker Poll Would you dig through an Irish landfill to find a $5 million rock? [Click here to vote]( Some final frontiers just aren’t worth exploringDepends on the Guinness supplyAlready in my rubber gloves 💬let's talk! In yesterday’s poll about [sumo wrestling]( 28% of you said you’re veteran fans. 📧 Lois wrote: “I lived in rural Japan in 90-91 and during the bashos, watched Sumo on television every evening. Didn’t understand a word but the matches and wrestlers paved the way to spirited conversations with my fellow teachers. … You showed a brief video clip of one wrestler pushing another out of the ring as the latter toppled and lost his balance. What you didn’t show was what most likely happened next: The match winner extending his hand to help the loser back into the ring. It’s a sport of gentle giants. Recently tainted by scandal, perhaps, but at its heart elegant and restorative.” 🤔 [What did you think of today’s email?](mailto:obsession%2Bfeedback@qz.com?cc=&subject=Thoughts%20about%20moon%20rocks&body=) 💡 [What should we obsess over next?](mailto:obsession%2Bideas@qz.com?cc=&subject=Obsess%20over%20this%20next.&body=) [🎲 Show me a random Obsession]( Today’s email was written by [Lucas Reilly]( edited by[Whet Moser]( and produced by[Luiz Romero.]( The correct answer to the quiz is Lunch box. Enjoying the Quartz Obsession? [Send this link]( to a friend! If you click a link to an e-commerce site and make a purchase, we may receive a small cut of the revenue, which helps support our ambitious journalism. See [here]( for more information. Not enjoying it? No worries. [Click here]( to unsubscribe. Quartz | 675 Avenue of the Americas, 4th Fl | New York, NY 10011 | United States [Share this email](