There may finally be an explanation as to why the federal government has adopted such a harsh stance against the unauthorized trade of moon rocks.
According to a report from NASA’s Audit Office, poor administrative work at the space agency is responsible the disappearance of hundreds of moon rocks, meteorites and cosmic dust samples.
Indeed, a whopping 500 pieces of lunar rocks and other space samples went missing between 1970 and June 2010.
It may be worse too, because the number of missing moon samples could be greater than the current estimate.
Why?
Because a shocking 19% of samples on loan are unaccounted for.
Last month, TG Daily discusssed a federal sting operation that was executed against 74-year-old Joann Davis, a grandmother from California who attempted to sell a moon rock she had in her possession. Davis told investigators her husband acquired it during his days as a space engineer nearly 40 years ago. Unsuprisingly, federal agents confiscated the moon rock which is worth close to a million dollars.
The report from NASA’s Audit Office may partially explain why the government was so determined to take it from Davis. It’s quite a valuable souvenir and NASA appears to operating under the assumption that anyone who owns a moon rock must have misappropriated it in some way.
