The dusty tape, now sliced down to about an eight of an inch, turned up at an auction last month and was then promptly seized by the US attorney’s office for eastern Missouri, according to an announcement made on Thursday.
“It wasn’t much to look at, but I will never be that close to the moon again,” Richard G. Callahan, the United States attorney, said.
NASA collected plenty of moon dust samples from the original mission, so it’s unclear what they plan to do with the tape now that they’ve put a decent amount of government time and resources into retrieving it. Maybe they’ll throw it in a glass box and shove it in the corner of some space museum. That box will probably spend the next 40 years collecting Earth dust, because pieces of tape are boring to look at, even if they’re peppered in dirt from space. [NY Times]
Chris Handler, Adelaide, SA
Saturday, June 25, 2011 at 5:59 PMThese have been bought, sold and traded on the open market for a decade now. When Slezak put the tape up for auction back in 2001, the NASA office of the inspector general investigated the sale, but came to the conclusion not to act. So why decide to now? By the way, the tape piece in question now wasn’t seized, it was surrendered willingly. This isn’t the first time NASA has made the request either. Only recently an astronomer in Edinburgh received minor publicity when he received the NASA letter of demand. He said no, and that was the end of it. In this case however, NASA can use this publicity to create the assumption within the public that these are illegal to own, without having to test it in court. Where they will most probably loose, and no longer be able to demand remaining displays under the false pretence that they aren’t legal. I’m a proud owner of an Apollo 11, Slezak moon dust display, and I feel I own it outright and legally. What was on that 2.5cm long piece of tape was only a tiny fraction of what came out of Magazine “S”, the rest was disposed of, an act that relinquished their intent of ownership.
Matt
Saturday, June 25, 2011 at 11:34 PMIsn’t it obvious? Moon dust is the perfect conductor for portals.
Joeyjoejoe
Sunday, June 26, 2011 at 12:07 PMNASA eventually found the moon rock, it was lodged in Richard G. Callahan’s nose the whole time!
Joeyjoejoe
Sunday, June 26, 2011 at 12:09 PMOn 2nd thought, Maybe Krusty stole it for his ‘Habit’
Krusty: I’m telling you Bart, one vice leads to another. Then you end up like me, so jaded the only thing that gets you off is freebasing ground up moon rocks. (He lights up a bong-like object and takes a drag.) All this does is get me to normal. (He groans.)
Bart: Thank you Krusty, once again you’ve delivered and important message wrapped in entertainment.