Got a Piece of Moon Rock? Prepare to be Sued!

At least that is what Deadliest Catch captain Coleman Anderson found out.

According to a recent Slash Dot article Joe Gutheinz, a former senior investigator for NASA's Office of Inspector General has made it his goal to collect all 230 moon rocks presented by the US to governments around the world, and put them in a museum.

Captain Anderson it seems has just such a coveted stone in his possession. Anderson came into ownership of the rock when going through fire debris of the Anchorage museum which burnt in 1973. He has kept it as a good luck piece ever since.

Gutheinz says that Apollo era astronauts were not allowed to keep any material from the moon and neither should private citizens. (Alaskan law might disagree however. Trash and Debris is considered abandoned as in title, claim of all rights and does not intend to reclaim or resume ownership)

Gutheinz however is asking an Alaskan judge to decide who legally owns the rock.

How an Intern Stole NASA's Moon Rocks

Carmel Hagen writing in Gizmodo tell the tale of how in:

• In 2002, rogue NASA interns stole millions of dollars in moon rocks. This is the untold story of how they did it.

This is one of those stories that when they happened...you just never really pay close enough attention and then later you find that things were never quite what you thought and stranger than fiction.

Read this fascinating and strange account of a NASA intern and a very odd Excel spread sheet here