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Alabama Man Sold a Priceless Apollo-Era Lunar Rover Protoype For Scrap Metal (vice.com)
Jason Koebler writes: An Alabama man allowed an Apollo-era lunar rover prototype to rot in his backyard before ultimately selling it to a junkyard for scrap metal last year, according to documents acquired from NASA as part of a Freedom of Information Act request. NASA spent much of 2014 attempting to acquire the priceless artifact for display in a museum, but it was ultimately destroyed before the agency could recover it.
1. up on blocks.
2. Huntsville.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
He probably has a grudge against NASA for proving that the Earth isn't flat.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
NASA Agency Bureaucracy Lets Historic Antique Slip From Their Fingers
If it didn't take them six months to reach out... Even a quick call "Hey, this is NASA. We heard you have one of our rovers. Could we just send someone over to verify?"
That is an extremely short-sighted viewpoint. Money isn't everything. First of all, if all you care about it direct funding from it, they would easily be able to monetize this by reselling it at auction. Putting it in a museum would enrich people's lives, which is invaluable. Having displays with things like this, are ways people get inspired to do what they can to help in space exploration, either through their own talents or with donations. These "antiques" could very well inspire the next generation of space explorers, which are kind of necessary because the ones we have now are expected to die at some point.
America put a man on the moon, we just used your real estate so if anything went wrong, nothing important would be damaged.
Sure NASA dragged it's feet. But I wonder if the historian walked over to the neighbor's house, knocked on the door, and mentioned that he though the guy had a piece of priceless artifact from NASA's history just sitting there. Even if the guy wasn't interested in contacting NASA right then, at least he would have known before he just scrapped it.
NASA spent much of 2014 attempting to acquire the priceless artifact for display in a museum
Sounds like they didn't try too hard if they couldn't compete with a scrap yard.
Should read..."Alabama Man Removes Junk from His Yard". Of course, no one would believe it.
Give a hand, not a hand-out.
He built it one piece at a time, and it didn't cost him a dime!
Rawr