Missing Moon Rocks

Apollo 11 Moon Rocks
Public Domain NASA photograph

One of the biggest achievements of humankind was the moon landings. That humans were able to walk on a celestial object was and still is an astounding feat of genius and bravery. The most famous result of said feat was roughly 850 pounds of moon rock or 270 rocks. Of these 270 rocks, 180 are missing as of early 2013.

Token moon rock pieces were given to countries all over the world and each of the United States. These rocks love to go missing or get stolen. As of now, quite a few are still missing, but more than that have been lost and recovered. One of the biggest problems with recovering lost moon rocks is that people try to pass of Earth rocks as moon rocks. That, and people are careless. For example, one moon rock is known to be somewhere in a landfill in Ireland.

One group of stolen material was taken right out of the Johnson Space Center by a few ambitious students. Several more have been stolen from educators charged with bringing the rocks to schools and the like. Oddly, they are usually taken right out of the safes in the vans that are carrying them, but they keep getting stored in safes in vans. Go figure.