Moon Rock Winds Up In Court

Lothar+0 writes "In United States v. Lucite ball containing lunar material (an actual case, I'm not making this up, folks), the feds are suing to get back a moon rock from an American who brought it back from Honduras. They're alleging that this rock from the Apollo 17 mission is stolen property; ironic considering that NASA took something that wasn't under U.S. jurisdiction."

Comments

Uhhh...

[PhysicsGenius]

That's very interesting, considering the 1976 case, "Blount vs McIverson" wherein the Fed Gov't claimed that moon rocks were public property in the same way Earth rocks are. In that landmark case it was established that rocks can be bought and sold irrespective of the Apollo program having picked them up originally.

I'd like to see them weasel out of that one.

Re:US Jurisdiction

[Qrlx]

We have left more trash on the moon than any other country. That certainly makes the moon resemble America. (By Trash I mean the part of the LEM that doesn't come back to Earth).

We need those volunteers who clean up the sides of the highways to go and clean up the Moon. I can see it now: "This Moon kept clean by Cedar Grove Girl Scout Troop #213"

I was gonna say that since we planted a US Flag on the Moon, then basically we claimed it. (At least that's the way it works in cartoons.) But as I recall, we actually brought the flag back with us.

I didn't bother to read the article (this is SlashDot, after all) but the plaque that Apollo 11 left on the moon does mention "For All Mankind." I would think that includes Honduras.

However, if the U.S. loses, George W. Bush will declare that Lucite Ball is a terrorist and then the courts won't matter.

Re:US Jurisdiction

[Alan Partridge]

what do you mean ANYMORE? The USA is living on borrowed time as the world's leading nation - how many of your "American" computers are actually manufactured in China? What happens when China gets to the moon? What happens when China's GDp overtakes that of the USA? What HAPPENED when the Chinese captured a US spy plane? We saw the balance of power right there. Quite frankly, the prospect of the filthy, murderous Chinese state apparatus dictating the fate of the entire world far more frightening than GWB's corrupt regime. When WWIII starts, the USA can count on my support. I don't think it'll help much, but it's yours all the same.