Chipping Away at the Moon

by Jessica Kosinski

People have been obsessed with space for centuries. That obsession only deepened as human beings began exploring it more thanks to modern technology. Today, you can find many space-related collectibles for sale, but that doesn’t mean all of them are worth collecting. Normally, this column lists reasons to collect particular items, but today’s column is a departure from that. Instead, here is a cautionary tale regarding collecting moon rocks.

The Obsession With Moon Rocks

Although the obsession with the moon probably started early in human history, the obsession with moon rocks didn’t begin until Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon. While there, as part of the Apollo 11 space mission, they collected several moon rock samples and brought them back to Earth.

In the early 1970s, President Richard Nixon gifted moon rocks from the Apollo 11 mission and the Apollo 17 mission to each of the U.S. states, U.S. territories, and 135 countries. They were intended for museum display and several other rocks harvested from the Apollo missions were used for research. However, that didn’t last when many of these were either stolen or went missing.

Some Reasons Moon Rocks Disappeared

Some of the moon rocks gifted by President Nixon that disappeared over the years did so for known and straightforward reasons, such as theft. Others disappeared without explanations. Then there are those with explained disappearances that were just plain strange.

A good example was when the Alaska Transportation Museum had a massive fire in 1973. Its moon rocks went missing after the fire until a crab fisherman named Coleman Anderson claimed that he found them in the fire debris when he was a child. He tried to obtain legal custody of the rocks from the state but eventually returned them finally in 2012.

Several moon rocks in various U.S. states were temporarily misplaced and found to be in Governors’ offices or private collections of former governors. One, former governor John Vanderhoof of Colorado, finally admitted to having the Colorado Goodwill Moon Rock when he was 88 years old. It was handed over to a museum.

Ireland also had a weird incident involving a moon rock. Unfortunately, its Apollo 11 gifted rock ended up being permanently lost because it was accidentally dumped at a landfill after a fire. However, the National Museum of Ireland still holds the Apollo 17 moon rock in its collections.

Embarrassing Thefts For NASA

Of course, many moon rocks have disappeared over the years due to blatant and deliberate thefts as well. Some were among those gifted by President Nixon. Others were rocks being used in scientific research.

In 1986, a Memphis, Tennessee moon rock theft took place when a NASA van was stolen and burned. At that time, the small amount of moon rocks stolen were being used for educational purposes. The theft wasn’t considered a major loss.

One of the most high-profile thefts of research rocks occurred in 2002 when three NASA interns stole moon rocks together. Then they tried to sell them online. A Belgian rock collector helped FBI agents set up a sting to stop the sale. That theft was taken much more seriously than the 1986 incident because of the number of rocks stolen, as well as the embarrassment of it being an inside job. Additionally, it was a huge loss scientifically because they destroyed research notes and contaminated the rocks, making them useless for further scientific analysis.

Moon Rocks, Fake Moon Rocks, and Lunar Meteorites

The most important thing to know about collecting real moon rocks is that, as of 2024, you can’t. At least, you can’t legally. Although, there have been several that were stolen over the years and passed between private collectors on the black market. Rarity, legalities, and costs make them off-limits to law-abiding citizens, or even criminals with limited budgets.

What you can easily and legally buy are fake moon rocks. When purchasing such items, make sure they are advertised as fake. Anyone trying to pass a moon rock off as real is almost certainly either lying intentionally, misinformed or selling stolen goods.

You can also purchase what are called lunar meteorites or lunar meteorite fragments. Those are meteorites that have fallen to Earth over the years from the moon. They are legal to buy, but you still have to do so with caution because many of them are fake. Even those that are not fake may not necessarily be from the moon. Most meteorites that fall to Earth come from asteroids, according to NASA. Only a comparatively small percentage come from the moon. Some also come from Mars.

The Takeaway

In short, trying to collect real moon rocks is not feasible, and trying to collect lunar meteorites can be quite difficult. You can easily find plenty of listings for them online. However, most do not provide proof of authenticity. Many fakes are easy to spot, even to the untrained eye. However, some look quite real. Often, you can use the price or the source as a clue. For example, a legitimate meteorite dealer does not tend to use a website like Etsy to make a sale. Don’t purchase anything you cannot authenticate.

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Jessica Kosinski has been a freelance researcher and writer since 2001. She developed a passion for pre-1990s television and films as a child and she has never grown out of it. Recently, she turned that passion into a retro TV and film blog. Follow along with her at https://medium.com/@jkos_writing, as she dives deep into the characters, actors, quirks, and trivia that brought us some of the greatest films and shows in TV history and also discusses some of the more obscure films and shows most of us may have forgotten.