Astronomy:Apollo 11 lunar sample display

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Hawaii Apollo 11 display
Hawaii Apollo 11 display

The Apollo 11 lunar sample display is a commemorative podium style plaque display consisting of four dust particle specimens (dubbed "Moon rocks"), the recipient's flag and two small metal plates attached with descriptive messages. The Apollo 11 plaques were given as gifts in 1970 by President Richard Nixon to 135 countries, the 50 states of the United States and its territories, and the United Nations.

History and description

Template:Apollo 11 lunar sample display With the exception of Venezuela, whose actual flag was not flown to the Moon on Apollo 11, the wording on the plaque (with the appropriate name filled in) was:[1]

"Presented to the people of _____ by Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America.

"This flag of your state was carried to the Moon and back by Apollo 11 and this fragment of the Moon's surface was brought to Earth by the crew of that first manned lunar landing."

Fate

Further information: Astronomy:Stolen and missing Moon rocks and Astronomy:List of Apollo lunar sample displays

The New York Times reported in 2012 that gifts of moon rocks were not well tracked or managed by NASA.[2] Within the US, public gifts require legislation to be transferred, but other nations set their own laws.[1] Some samples of lunar dust soil from the Apollo 11 and lunar basalt 70017 from the later Apollo 17 missions have been reported missing.[1][3] Since 2005 entities and people have made concerted efforts to find the displays.[4][5][6] Joseph Gutheinz, a former NASA Office of Inspector General special agent and a professor[7] who teaches an online course at the University of Phoenix,[8] had his students try to locate the displays. Robert Pearlman of collectSPACE has also tracked the displays.[1][3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Apollo11displays
  2. ↑ Fernandez, Manny (January 21, 2012). "NASA Searches for Loot That Traveled From Space to Another Void". The New York Times (Houston, Texas). https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/science/space/nasa-tackles-problem-of-missing-moon-rocks.html. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Pearlman, Robert. "Where today are the Apollo 17 goodwill lunar sample displays". CollectSPACE. http://www.collectspace.com/resources/moonrocks_goodwill.html. 
  4. ↑ "Houston lawyer on quest for missing moon rocks". Associated Press. Buffalo, Texas. May 14, 2012. http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/05/14/houston-lawyer-on-quest-to-find-missing-moon-rocks/. 
  5. ↑ "Customs agents seize 4 billion year old moon rock". CNN. December 7, 1998. http://www.cnn.com/US/9812/07/moon.rock. 
  6. ↑ Hennessy-Fiske, Molly (February 7, 2012). "Finding lost moon rocks is his mission". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/feb/07/nation/la-na-moon-rock-20120208. 
  7. ↑ "One man's quest to find missing moon rocks". Detroit Free Press (Buffalo, Texas). 2012-05-14. http://article.wn.com/view/2012/05/14/One_mans_quest_to_find_missing_moon_rocks/. 
  8. ↑ Silvey, Janese (July 8, 2010). "Moon rock discovery a false alarm: Apollo 17 keepsake still missing after all.". Columbia Daily Tribune. Archived from the original on March 21, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120321165650/http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2010/jul/08/moon-rock-discovery-a-false-alarm/. Retrieved November 4, 2012. 



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