As you may know, it’s illegal to sell moon rocks in the United States. The reason it’s illegal is because all moon rocks were returned to the Earth from the Moon on Apollo missions and are considered national treasures. However, the moon rocks returned to the Earth by Apollo astronauts were typically given out to researchers in various states around the country and around the world.
The problem was that many states simply didn’t keep track of their national treasure rock chunks and many have become lost or stolen over the years. The assumption is many of the lost specimens have been sold on the black market for significant sums of money. However, the Minnesota National Guard announced this week that it has found a few small fragments of moon rocks from the Apollo 11 moon landing.
These particular samples disappeared after they were given to Minnesota during the Nixon administration. After years being lost, the moon rocks were recovered in a storage building in St. Paul. The moon rocks will be turned over to the Historical Society this week.
Now that Minnesota has recovered its lost moon rocks, there are still multiple states they can’t find their own samples. States currently missing moon rock samples include Massachusetts, Texas, and Wisconsin. Perhaps someone should check the storage building behind the governor’s mansion in these states.
[via Huffington Post]