Houston lawyer seeks to inventory moon particles

BUFFALO, Texas - A former NASA investigator is on a quest to identify and perhaps recover rare treasure brought to Earth and then lost: tiny portions of moon rocks.

“We’re educating the states and countries of the world about how much they’re worth on the black market, and we need to increase the security in museums and put them back on display,’’ Joe Gutheinz said.

The rock samples were collected by the dozen American astronauts who walked on the moon between 1969-1972. US states, territories, the UN, and foreign governments received them as gifts. The samples, which also were lent to museums and given to scientists for research, range in size from dust particles to pebbles.

“A lot of them are in storage. We need to put them in an inventory control system; that’s what’s really lacking,’’ said Gutheinz, a Houston lawyer who also teaches college classes in investigative techniques.

NASA, which keeps its collection of rocks at Johnson Space Center in Houston and a facility in New Mexico, has confirmed the lack of oversight and has promised to tighten controls, concurring with a report from its Office of Inspector General, where Gutheinz worked until 2000.

[Boston Globe]