Today I was as close to moon rocks as you can get without actually touching them, about one centimeters. You may have already heard about it on the news but these moon rocks were harvested during the Apollo 11 mission (the first man on the moon, one small step... etc). They have also been lost for awhile and were found in a National Guard storage locker. As it turns out there are actually a lot of moon rocks that are missing. After Apollo 11 (&17) rocks were given to ever state in the US and every country in the world as a goodwill gesture symbilizing how we are all in this thing together and that as a human race we had accomplished the unimaginable. Pretty nice. Unfortunately soon after the gifts were distributed a booming black market moon rock business was established. The problem was/is so bad that there is actually an organization, led by the foremost expert in stolen moon rock recovery, dedicated to tracking down the missing rocks. They have even performed a sting operation in Columbia where they used $5 million of Ross Perot's money (funny huh?) to use in an exchange with a Moon rock thief. The rocks I was witness to today weighed about a half gram and were worth about $5-10 million! They are now in the custody of the Minnesota history society and will enter into their collection along side a rock from Apollo 17.
Wowie! That's about the coolest thing I ever heard. I was alive for all of the moon missions, ya know. My parents made me watch them on tv, so I've probably seen those rocks before. Just sayin'. Six degrees of separation isn't just a movie you won't watch because it has Will Smith in it.
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