NASA Busts Woman Selling $1.7M 'Moon Rock'

reply to post by burntheships


And that is a very interesting thing.

I'd have to ask, does this mean that if a meteorite of lunar material was found on Earth that NASA assumes control of it? Does this apply to just lunar material? Is there a wider implication to this sort of law? Is this assumed to apply just inside the US borders, or the jurisdiction of this wider?

reply to post by Aeons


I highly doubt that bts meant to imply what you're saying, about meteorites.

What falls to the surface, would be the "property" of the discoverer (or, the sovereign territory, perhaps).

But, surely it is obvious in the case of the Apollo Lunar samples....they are under the auspices, and thus "belong", to NASA. (And by extension, maybe the United States).

Anyone else who chooses to mount an expedition to the Moon, and pick up their own material, would then be able to lay claim to that, since they went to the expense and effort....

Originally posted by Helious
An undercover NASA agent? NASA is a civilian run operation, while still under government control. Who gives them authority to have undercover agents and perform "stings"?

I believe, THIS TIME, that we the people did. Those rocks were collected on our dime. They belong to all of us.

reply to post by Aeons


It is a very interesting thing Aeons...

I did come across some information earlier which I cant locate now...darn.

Hmmmm..

In the United States, most state laws provide that a meteorite find belongs to the landowner upon which the meteorite was found.[4] This doctrine contrasts with the once-predominant rule in state courts on the finding of treasure trove, where buried gold or silver coinage (or paper money representing the same) is deemed to belong to the finder.

State landsMany state courts have interpreted their laws as granting the state sole title to any meteorite recovered on state-owned lands.

United States laws and enforcement of laws regarding recovery of meteorites on federally-owned public lands is unsettled. With respect to large meteorites, the federal government has asserted title to all such meteorites if proven to be found on federal land, because a) the meteorite is the property of the federal government, the landowner, b) because meteorites found on public lands are subject to the 1906 Antiquities Act (16 U.S.C. 432), and c) the meteorite does not qualify as a “valuable mineral” as defined under the 1872 Mining Law, thus not subject to mineral claim rights that could otherwise be filed by the discoverer.[5] This policy derives from cases as far back as 1944, when the federal government seized the Drum Mountain Meteorite in Utah from a group of interned Japanese-American U. S. citizens. The federal government has sometimes agreed to negotiate sometimes negotiating a small finders fee for large meteorites, but has never agreed to pay anything resembling full market value of the meteorite to the discoverer. en.wikipedia.org...

Then again thats Wikipedia for you...I need to verify those sources in the footnotes....but its a good place
to start.

reply to post by Aeons


But the thing is, NASA did not know whether this was acutally a moon rock or just some
rock someone thought was a moon rock.

So the way I see it, NASA has some prior precedent established that its against the law to sell
moonrocks. Again, not that I agree with this being right.

Its obvious there is some kind of conpsiracy at work here, I just dont have a good angle on it yet.
How about you, any thoughts?

reply to post by burntheships


Color me stunned that the main Link made no mention of eBay. Over the past 10+ years I've seen people try to sell everything via auction, from wives, babies, substances, illegal ivory and half of the Personal Hygiene Dept of Wal-Mart. What, no Moon Rocks? !!!

reply to post by LargeFries


Yes, moon rocks. I would agree, there are mass fraud actions going down on ebay....

Yet, NASA took this one very seriously. Why?

reply to post by burntheships


Setting precedent. Keeping tabs on information which could be used by competitors. That'd be the angle I'd expect.

Setting early precedent will allow for nations who've consider these aspects to have earlier clarity in the opening resources of near solar space. Clarity of bureaucracy, with set precedent, will put them ahead.

Knowledge is power. When the moon rocks/dust were originally gifted, this concept was not as fully understood as it is now. Given the opportunity to "gift" these resources today, they wouldn't.

reply to post by burntheships


Makes you wonder...A- What is so spectacular about the rock?...and B- How does she have it if it is illegal to sell? and C- Why would someone want it if they could not show it off to anyone...just to have it?

reply to post by restlessbrainsyndrome


Answering the last question - yes people want some things just to possess them. This would be like those people keeping rooms of the artworks stolen from jews in Nazi Germany. They can't show them off. They can't admit they have them.

They just have them to have them.

Originally posted by Helious
An undercover NASA agent? NASA is a civilian run operation, while still under government control. Who gives them authority to have undercover agents and perform "stings"?

No it is not.
Have you not been paying attention?
NASA is basically DoD/Govt/Military.
NASA is controlled by them, run by them, therefore no different.

Are you really surprised NASA would have "undercover agents" who would do all the same shady $&^% as the CIA, DoD, NSA, etc etc etc?
Really?

You truly believe that NASA is "civilian"?
Really?

and this is absolutely retarded.
How absurd.
Pull a "sting" on some woman selling something she said was a rock from the moon.
Who the fk do they think they are?

Oh wait.. Govt. that's who.

Originally posted by Aeons

When the moon rocks/dust were originally gifted, this concept was not as fully understood as it is now. Given the opportunity to "gift" these resources today, they wouldn't.

Very much agreed.

Its intriguing to go look at the old papers online...like this one ffrom 1971.

The Evening Independent



And those missing parts, was that someones sticky note?

Originally posted by weedwhacker
reply to post by Regenstorm

 

I wondered how long it would be, before that "Dutch Rock" was brought up!

Again, that was a complete non-event, really an embarrassment for all concerned. The piece of petrified wood was given to the Ambassador, at some (undetermined) point. He kept it in his home....where it was discovered, after his death....and someone else (who is, if still alive, no doubt horribly embarrassed) and a few others thought it was a "moon rock"....as did quite a few other ignorant, gullible people. Including the museum curator....

No one bothered to ascertain its credibility....they all just assumed.....

Yeah, but how do we know the petrified wood wasn't from the moon

In any case, I've changed my mind about selling that bottle of methane from Jupiter on eBay. Don't want the Feds kicking down my door for that.

Lol I love how one of the people on the comments below states:
"16% of all alien rocks are unaccounted for!
They are here doing the jobs that American rocks don't want to do."

I would think the logic would be quite clear here. It is either a fraudulent sale of a "moon rock" or a real moon rock. Given that all official moon rocks have come from NASA then possession would involve a crime: fencing stolen property. Now, if you build a rocket, blast off for the moon, gather up some rocks, bring them back and sell them...not much NASA can say about it. They may even want to buy a few to add to their collection.

Of course there may be laws against the selling of any moon rocks or taking off in a rocket without express permission to do so.

reply to post by burntheships


I sometimes have moon rocks fall out of my ears, not worth 1.7 million though. NASA are more than welcome to come and collect those !!!!

an undercover nasa agent? the lady should have known that if someone approaches you, has a gigantic head, black horn-rimmed glasses and a pocket protector full of pens and is interested in buying your moonrock, he's probably a nasa agent.

reply to post by burntheships


bad luck! .. must have been some undercover agent lol

Originally posted by burntheships
reply to post by pez1975

 

Ah, yes I would have been traumatized also, darn they had to get upset about an accident?

January 30, 2006: Moondust. "I wish I could send you some," says Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan. Just a thimbleful scooped fresh off the lunar surface. "It's amazing stuff."

Feel it—it's soft like snow, yet strangely abrasive.

Taste it—"not half bad," according to Apollo 16 astronaut John Young.

Sniff it—"it smells like spent gunpowder," says Cernan.

How do you sniff moondust? science.nasa.gov...

edit on 22-5-2011 by burntheships because: (no reason given)

A can of worms>>>

Moondust was incredibly clingy, sticking to boots, gloves and other exposed surfaces. No matter how hard they tried to brush their suits before re-entering the cabin, some dust (and sometimes a lot of dust) made its way inside.

Was someone trying to smoke it?