Sometimes NASA can be such Dicks.....

Harsh, I know, but let me bring you up to speed:

40+ years ago, upon its' return, the material that the Apollo 11 crew collected from the Moon was categorized and packaged for later study at various universities.  One of these was the Space Sciences Laboratory in Latimer Hall on the UC Berkeley campus.  After Berkeley studied the dust samples, they were packaged for return to NASA.  the ensuing hub-bub, a vacuum jar containing   vials of the moon-dust was accidentally moved to storage, where they sat until Berkeley Lab archivist Karen Nelson found the Moon dust — about 20 vials.  Nelson says there is no record of how they wound up in a university storage warehouse.  

Upon hearing about the find, NASA promptly requested the return of the samples. 

Am I missing something here?  Believe me, this is not the only sample NASA lost contact with samples.  How many times have we heard of people who have found or have in their possession whole rocks!  Now they are worried about dust?  Really? 

Any way, the article is short, click HERE to go to the whole article. 

What Ever Happened to the Apollo Moon Rocks?

Barry sends in an article from the Times if not pressing, is interesting and thought provoking. The question is, what is the present status of the Luna samples brought back by the Apollo astronauts. Since Apollo 11 landed July 20 1969, Apollo crews brought back over 800 pounds of Moon rocks and soil. Far from laying fallow for the past 39 years, this material has been the focus of constant scientific scrutiny. The samples are divided into 2,200 samples. Each are numbered and sorted by expedition starting with Apollo 11’s historic mission in 1969 and ending with Apollo 17 in December 1972. Each sample is kept in nitrogen-filled boxes in a stainless steel vault on the second floor of the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility. A 14,000-square-foot repository at the Johnson Space Center. Each time any one of the samples are moved they are transferred to other parts of the lab in airlocks. Technicians who prepare small pieces of each sample for shipments have to use glove boxes containing sterile tools and containers. Each year an independent peer review panel evaluates new research proposals, and curators mail out about 400 lunar samples to 40 to 50 scientists worldwide. Almost all are less than one gram in size. Even these are considered loans.

For the complete article in the New York Times about the ongoing research on Luna material, click here