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The Case of the Missing Moon Rocks
Joseph Gutheinz is on a mission to save the moon. Decades ago, astronauts brought back 850 pounds of rocks from their lunar journeys; the U.S. gave some away as “goodwill” gifts to the world’s nations. Over time, many of them disappeared, stolen or lost in the aftermath of political turmoil, and offered for millions on the black market. Gutheinz, first as a NASA investigator and then the leader of a intrepid group of students, has dedicated his life to getting them back. Author Joe Kloc tells a wild story of geopolitics, crime, science, and one man’s obsession with keeping the moon out of the wrong hands.
- GenresScienceHistoryNonfiction
47 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 19, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 29, 2014
A fun little Kindle Single (originally published on The Atavist) by Joe Kloc, “The Case of the Missing Moon Rocks” follows one man obsessed with accounting for all of the moon rock samples given out to foreign governments, and to each state by Richard Nixon following the end of the Apollo program. Turns out a substantial number of these samples have gone missing, and remain so to this day.
After Apollo 17 made its way back to Earth part of one of the rock samples it returned, known by NASA as Sample 70017, was divided into pebble sized pieces, encased in Lucite, affixed to a commemorative plaque along with a national flag that had flown to the moon, and was presented to leaders of all the countries in the world as a gesture of peace and goodwill. Many of those countries apparently weren’t all that impressed as most of them have apparently lost, sold, or misplaced their piece of the moon. Occasionally some have popped up on the black market. One man made it his personal mission to track down as many of these as possible.
In the United States it is illegal to sell or buy Apollo moon rocks, pieces of Apollo 1, and pieces of the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia. Special NASA agent Joseph Gutheinz made it his personal mission to stop and to arrest anyone attempting to do so. He had a fair amount of success, recovering one of the commemorative pieces given to the Honduras that ended up sold to an American collector and another lost in a museum fire in Alaska. As this little single reads like a detective story (which in fact it is), I won’t go further.
I enjoyed this as far as it goes. I hadn’t really read anything about this before so this was new information to me. It is well enough written though it ends very abruptly. It took me 45 minutes to read, so well worth the diversion!
After Apollo 17 made its way back to Earth part of one of the rock samples it returned, known by NASA as Sample 70017, was divided into pebble sized pieces, encased in Lucite, affixed to a commemorative plaque along with a national flag that had flown to the moon, and was presented to leaders of all the countries in the world as a gesture of peace and goodwill. Many of those countries apparently weren’t all that impressed as most of them have apparently lost, sold, or misplaced their piece of the moon. Occasionally some have popped up on the black market. One man made it his personal mission to track down as many of these as possible.
In the United States it is illegal to sell or buy Apollo moon rocks, pieces of Apollo 1, and pieces of the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia. Special NASA agent Joseph Gutheinz made it his personal mission to stop and to arrest anyone attempting to do so. He had a fair amount of success, recovering one of the commemorative pieces given to the Honduras that ended up sold to an American collector and another lost in a museum fire in Alaska. As this little single reads like a detective story (which in fact it is), I won’t go further.
I enjoyed this as far as it goes. I hadn’t really read anything about this before so this was new information to me. It is well enough written though it ends very abruptly. It took me 45 minutes to read, so well worth the diversion!
March 4, 2012
Quick read, (obviously, a Kindle Single). NASA OIG who tracks down moon rocks originally given to most countries on the globe by Pres Nixon as a goodwill gesture. Some of the rocks have gone missing and the black/gray market has some action in them to the tune of millions of dollars.
The rocks in this book are Apollo 17 Goodwill rocks.
http://www.collectspace.com/resources...
The rocks in this book are Apollo 17 Goodwill rocks.
http://www.collectspace.com/resources...
July 28, 2014
I generally love The Atavist offerings, but this story fell flat for me. The author never really established a narrative thread. Instead, I felt as though I was reading a series of facts strung together. (It may be that reading the Nook version caused me to miss out on the multi-media elements.) Still: the moon, NASA, and intrigue are always nice weekend reads.
February 25, 2012
Enjoyable little book and a former NASA investigator who becomes obsessed with moon rocks.
Not as great as "Sex on the Moon", but a fascinating tale of someone who wants to find out the whereabouts of all of the moon rocks that Nixon gave out around the world.
Not as great as "Sex on the Moon", but a fascinating tale of someone who wants to find out the whereabouts of all of the moon rocks that Nixon gave out around the world.
March 13, 2012
It was very short and light on details, but it was interesting.
April 2, 2012
Interesting.....I thought it was going to be fiction.
November 24, 2020
Gripping tale of the black market for moon rocks. Great writing. Interesting characters. Quick read. Sort of a journalistic equivalent of film noir meets scifi.
November 21, 2020
Interesting and well written, but overly condensed.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews