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Moon Rocks Still In Demand After Almost 40 Years
During NASA's Apollo missions to the moon, roughly 842 pounds of rocks were collected from the lunar surface. Scientific demand for the rocks has always been high, and a review board tracks and sends out hundreds of samples each year, even now, decades after the rocks were brought to Earth. They've provided researchers with a wealth of information about the entire solar system. From the NYTimes:
"The samples have confirmed that asteroid and meteor impacts, not volcanism, created the vast majority of craters that define the Moon's topography, while a constant barrage of meteorites, micrometeorites and radiation melted and pureed the bedrock to create the blanket of fine-grained soil and dust -- known as regolith -- that now cloaks the lunar surface. And knowing the ages of Moon rocks, which can be computed to within 20 million years, has enabled scientists to establish a baseline that allows them to date geologic features throughout the solar system. The surface of the Earth, one of the solar system's youngest topographies, is constantly changing, as it is faulted, folded, shaped and reshaped by eruptions, earthquakes and erosion. By contrast, the Moon is as old as it gets."
Pet rocks had this kind of enduring appeal. Then I could take mine
I can't wait for the first samples from Mars to be returned, though at this rate I'll be a grey old man. I've always loved the description of the planetary landscape in Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars , especially his account of how astronauts would have to deal with "fines" (ultra-small dust particles that seep everywhere). Even if I could only see a marsrock in the Smithsonian, it would make me feel so much closer to the Red Planet.
Too bad they're all fakes picked up from the driveway outside a soundstage in southern california. All those so called "scientists" and "NASA" will look so silly once people actually make it to the moon and find that it really is made of cheese. Demand for the gourmet "moon cheese" will cause overmining of the moon and an eventual orbital shift sometime in 2012 which will cause all female mammals on earth to have a massively synchronized ovulatory cycle which will end with the death of all the males.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
When we go go back: Take a shovel and bucket.
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Even though the surface of earth changes, but I dont thing the stuff (rocks etc) just disappear. They still remain on earth. So, why can't they be used to find anything about the universe? Maybe they are used, and I don't know about that. But article makes us believe that due to changes on earth's surface, matter here is not as useful as that on moon.
We really should stop outsourcing dirt from other planets to fill out dirt needs. Think of the economy!
It's not rock... it's fossilized whalebone.
You mean compared to the 5.9736 × 10^24 kg of Earth?
Who'da thunk it?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
"By contrast, the Moon is as old as it gets.""
So true. Even when John McCain was a kid, he could look up in the night sky and see the moon.
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This article is about the rocks we already have being wanted for science. At the moment there are about a half-dozen nations who want the rest of them for construction materials.
I worked in the photo labs at Johnson Space Center (Nasa Houston) back in 1972 and was told that when Apollo 11 returned, Nasa had the Lunar Receiving Laboratory set up like a Fort Dietrich style germ warfare lab. Apparently there was actually concern that the rocks could harbor harmful microbes. This may have all been an urban legend of the time - I'm not sure. In any case, the photo techs thought this was pretty funny, since the boxes that the Hasselblad film cassettes were returned in were full of moon dust and it stuck to everything.
They are the only way that I know of to successfully get the Avatar to Britania and back.
I sell mine on ebay. The ones with a picture of Mary or Jesus fetch a handsome price.
rocks from a California desert movie set still in demand after 40 years?
"It's hard to wrap your mind around a place where nothing ever happens," Mr. Allen said.
Okay everybody - use this comment as a jumping-off point to rag on your job/office/co-workers...
"It's time to take life by the cans." ~ Bender ("Bendin' in the Wind", ep. 3-13)
I'd love to see a sample return mission from Titan. The delta-v requirements would be stupendous, but just imagine finding a whole alternative biochemistry based on liquid methane.
Yeah, but there were fewer craters then.
Every time a political career fails, a new crater appears on the moon. Of course, most failures are too small to see, even if we think they are important. Local elections generate moon dust. You need a Ceasar undergoing an ambitionectomy to just make it visible. The really big craters probably occurred when there were only a few humans. Say about 4004 BC.
So now you understand the background behind election talk, the inner message.
Talk of "Impact".
Talk of "Give me a ring sometime".
Talk of "The Crater Good of Mankind".
It's all covered in the Science lectures in a Political Science course. There are only 3 of those, they all occur 5 pm on a Friday, and don't get examined. Even Political Scientists know that science is irrelevant. But any senator that said that would create a 5mm crater. (Not 5 million miles. This is science. 0.2 inches.)
It's not like they're getting any less rare.
"... knowing the ages of Moon rocks, which can be computed to within 20 million years"
If there's a 20-million-year margin of error, then they certainly do not 'know the ages of moon rocks'. It really is pathetic what society tolerates/accepts when it comes to "science".
As shown in this YouTube video. ;)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
this just in! breaking news: rare objects still desired!!
some of the NYT comments are worse. The guy touted a lunar sample mission by the Russians and they certainly didn't bring any lunar rocks back during the height of the space race and quite honestly I don't think anyone has brought anything back since the astronauts picked them and returned them.
Some of the other stuff, too, is the claim that 800 lbs of lunar geology is enough to tell the story of the moon. We still get cannot get the earth's story straight, geologically speaking, and we're standing on the samples! There's been no systematic mineral assay, no samples in the mountains, no samples in the big caves thought to be on the moon, no samples from the polar regions and really, not much at all.
This is my sig.
If only there was a way we could get more of them.
A little-known fact: It is against Federal law for a private citizen to own any piece of a legitimate moon rock. If you own one (or have bought one), you are required by law to contact NASA immediately and hand it over; without delay.
It was a little meteor!
(captcha: pathos!)
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Fucking rocks, Neil? I don't know if you noticed before you left, but the earth is made of fucking rock. Oh, but this is "moon rock" you say? And this is "earth rock." Did you hear that rock has gone up three points on the market? No, it didn't, because it's fucking rock! We wanted diamonds or sherbet, or a squirrel with a flute, Neil!
-Eddie Izzard.
How silly this all is. Everyone knows that the moon landing was filmed at Universal Studios.
My wife teaches fifth grade. A few years back, as part of her science curriculum, she was able to get a moon rock on loan from NASA for her classroom. I was amazed at how (seemingly) simple it was - she (and the school) had to sign some papers, and they left it with her for a week. I came in after class one day to see it -- I was pretty amazed to actually be holding a moon rock in my hands. As I recall, it was from one of the later Apollo moon missions, but still very cool.
fingers crossed for other planets sample!
I saw a piece of moon rock while on vacation this sprint, at the New Mexico Museum of Space History. It looked like a piece of brownie with some icing sugar sprinkled on top. That, coupled with how the website refers to it as "moon rock" (their quotes, not mine), is highly suspicious...
OMG, I see that there are people still believing this bullshit. It is true that the human stupidity has no limits. I just imagine how in some future (and I hope in a near one) it will be revealed officially that all that 'journey' was a fake to the millions of american sheeple living in a deep democracy. Open your eyes, the government that is closer to your physical body is not necessarily the most honest one ;)
To be able to hold in ones hand a piece of the night sky is pretty cool. It allows you to feel as if you really are part of something bigger then Earth.
And, ... if your having problems feeling like your part of the Earth ... you can always get an Authentic Rocks From Mars