[meteorite-list] Loss Of NASA Work Surfaces At Moon Rock Trial

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:22:33 2004
Message-ID: <200306031620.JAA12257_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-locmoon03060303jun03,0,7637788.story?coll=orl-home-headlines

Loss of NASA work surfaces at moon rock trial
By Henry Pierson Curtis
Orlando Sentinel
June 3, 2003

Last summer's theft of a priceless collection of moon rocks and meteorites
destroyed 33 years of handwritten notes by a top NASA scientist studying the
origins of the universe.

The disappearance of the six green clothbound journals came out Monday as a
trial began in federal court in Orlando over the break-in at the Johnson
Space Center in Houston by three summer interns.

The U.S. Attorney's Office has not set a value on the moon rocks, which
prosecutor Rachelle DesVaux Bedke called "national treasures."

Other estimates range from $1 million to more than $500 million, based on a
$5 million-a-gram price bandied about last year for a specimen in South
Florida in another case. In 1993, three flecks of moon rocks from a Russian
lunar probe sold at a Sotheby's auction for $442,500.

Standing trial is Gordon McWhorter, who is accused of arranging the sale of
the stolen items for ringleader, Thad Roberts, a once-promising science
student and aspiring astronaut from the University of Utah.

Roberts, 26, who pleaded guilty, is scheduled to testify today against his
old friend.

Vials containing the stolen specimens were recovered July 20 by the FBI at a
hotel on International Drive after the burglars used e-mails to negotiate
their sale.

No money changed hands for what the writer of the missing journals, Everett
K. Gibson Jr., described as samples from each of the six Apollo lunar
missions and what may be the most scientifically important rock in the
world.

Labeled "ALH84001," a card-size plastic box under guard in U.S. District
Judge Anne C. Conway's sixth-floor courtroom contains pieces of a Martian
meteorite found in 1984 in Antarctica that Gibson said shows signs of the
possibility of life on Mars.

The meteorite and more than 30 clear vials containing 101.5 grams of moon
rocks are all held in a green-and-gray fishing tackle box the burglars
bought to carry the stolen specimens.

"We, as scientists, are responsible for every gram of samples allocated to
us," said Gibson, explaining tight National Aeronautics and Space
Administration controls over experiments on extraterrestrial specimens and
why he kept them in a five-drawer safe in a locked room. "Every grain must
be returned because they are the property of the people of this nation."

Gibson testified in a pre-recorded videotape, so he could be in London for
Monday's scheduled launch of a satellite probing Mars for the European Space
Agency. He did not discuss how the loss of his journals would affect his
research.

The specimens were stolen July 15 when Roberts and two female colleagues
took Gibson's 585-pound safe. One of the burglars, Tiffany Fowler, testified
Monday that McWhorter, 27, didn't know that she and Roberts had stolen moon
rocks from NASA until McWhorter met them in Orlando the night they were
arrested.

"He was surprised and seemed somewhat impressed," said Fowler, 23, who
previously pleaded guilty and described herself as Roberts' former
girlfriend.

The third NASA intern in the burglary, Shae Lynn Saur, 20, also pleaded
guilty and is on the government's witness list.

Roberts was portrayed in testimony elicited by defense attorney Daniel F.
Daly of Tampa as a charismatic thrill seeker who persuaded Fowler and Saur
to commit a crime that was totally out of character for the two college
honor students.

Held without bail in the Lake County Jail, Roberts has spent recent months
writing a manuscript about stealing the moon rocks.

He told the prosecutor "he wanted it to be like a movie that he could
interest people in at some later date."

Henry Pierson Curtis can be reached at 407-420-5257 or
hcurtis_at_orlandosentinel.com.
Received on Tue 03 Jun 2003 12:20:38 PM PDT