[meteorite-list] Faulty Safe Cited in Moon Rock Theft

From: Martin Altmann <altmann_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Jan 23 17:23:22 2006
Message-ID: <006f01c6206b$318ab040$7e47fea9_at_ns279>

Huh Dave?

>forced to pay restitution

Yes, she should.
The article says:
"The stolen samples are uninsured and have no official monetary value,
according to NASA."
and
"If the moon rocks have been removed from their containers, they lose their
scientific value."

So they have no value at all :-)

In the name of the meteorite list I sentence Mrs.Rudo Kashiri to fully
restitute the lost National Treasure and to purchase a similar sized Moon
speck from da Hupes, Afanasjev, Farmer or Altmann for 20$.
(NASA should be dismissed, they even didn't insure the samples....so what is
it all about!).

Such things can happen, poor Mrs.Kashiri.

Cottingham should print some "I love Rudo!" shirts, caps and coffee cups
and experienced Geoff Notkin should start a collect of meteorite samples for
her.

Yippiiiieh!
Martin

Oops, I stepped on a sample of soil. Everything full of soil, on the floor.
Should clean tomorrow, anyone needs soil for a display disk?





----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Carothers" <davecarothers_at_erols.com>
To: "Ron Baalke" <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>; "Meteorite Mailing List"
<meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 10:47 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Faulty Safe Cited in Moon Rock Theft


> 1. Saying the safe "worked sporadically" sounds a bit like a case of "the
> dog ate my homework", in which case the educator involved should be fired,
> fined and forced to pay restitution.
>
> 2. If she was stupid enough to have previous knowledge that the safe
> "worked sporadically" and still used the safe anyway, she should be
fired,
> fined and forced to pay restitution.
>
> 3. If she was stupid enough to have previous knowledge that the safe
> "worked sporadically" AND didn't tell anyone and still used the safe
anyway,
> she should be fired, fined and forced to pay restitution.
>
> In any case... she should be fired, fined and forced to pay restitution.
>
> Dave
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
> To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 4:33 PM
> Subject: [meteorite-list] Faulty Safe Cited in Moon Rock Theft
>
>
> >
> >
>
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1128769406298
> >
> > Faulty safe cited in moon rock theft
> > Educator whose van was broken into says safe didn't always lock
> >
> > BY A.J. HOSTETLER
> > RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
> > January 19, 2006
> >
> > NASA moon rocks stolen from a parked van were tucked in a safe whose
> > combination lock worked sporadically, says the Virginia Beach
> > educational specialist who used the rocks to teach about space.
> >
> > NASA and Virginia Beach police are investigating last week's theft near
> > Oceana Naval Air Station. One Lucite disk about 6 inches wide held three
> > moon rocks and three soil samples weighing a little more than a paper
> > clip, and another disk contained six meteorite samples.
> >
> > "I really feel bad about what happened, losing a national treasure,"
> > aerospace education specialist Rudo Kashiri said yesterday.
> >
> > The van's alarm sounded shortly after 3 a.m. Jan. 10, but by the time
> > Kashiri awoke in her condo and ran outside to her driveway, someone had
> > forced open the van's side door and snatched the moon rocks from the
> > safe, which was bolted and welded to the van, she said.
> >
> > A silver suitcase, a projector and a cooler were also taken. The cooler
> > was found nearby by police who arrived and searched the area, she said.
> >
> > Kashiri said the safe's lock had been troublesome lately, but she
> > thought the safe was closed that night.
> >
> > "Once in a while, sometimes it would not stick [shut], and sometimes it
> > will, and maybe this is one of the times I thought I locked it all the
> > way and it didn't," she said.
> >
> > Her employer says the problem was not reported but an official is going
> > through e-mails to see if it had been overlooked.
> >
> > Kashiri works for the NASA Aerospace Education Services Program, which
> > has 32 education specialists around the country assigned to NASA
> > centers. They visit classrooms and give teacher workshops and lectures
> > to the public.
> >
> > The program is run by Oklahoma State University. After the theft in
> > Virginia Beach, the specialists were reminded of NASA's requirements to
> > safeguard their samples, said the program's director, Steve Marks of
OSU.
> >
> > "They are to be under lock and key at all times," he said.
> >
> > Marks said he is waiting for reports on the investigation by police and
> > NASA's Office of Inspector General before determining whether to take
> > any action against Kashiri.
> >
> > Kashiri, a former teacher trained in physics, joined the edu- cational
> > program in 2004 after working at Atlanta's Fernbank Science Center for
> > several years. As one of three instructors at Langley Research Center in
> > Hampton, Kashiri is scheduled to present a program in Franklin on
> > Saturday to fourth- and fifth-graders.
> >
> > Instructors must follow strict guidelines for safeguarding NASA's moon
> > rocks. They are not to leave the samples unattended and may display the
> > samples only at NASA-approved locations. When not in use, the samples
> > are to be secured in a vault or the safes in their vans.
> >
> > Most of the Apollo soil samples and moon rocks, more than 800 pounds
> > collected by astronauts from 1969 through 1972, are still held at the
> > Johnson Space Center in Houston.
> >
> > The stolen samples are uninsured and have no official monetary value,
> > according to NASA. If the moon rocks have been removed from their
> > containers, they lose their scientific value.
> >
> > Federal law prohibits private ownership of lunar samples brought back by
> > the Apollo missions, and they cannot be legally sold.
> >
> > However, an unscrupulous collector might seek one illegally, says a
> > retired NASA employee who investigated missing moon rocks given in
> > goodwill gestures to 135 foreign nations in the 1970s.
> >
> > Given that the asking price eight years ago for a NASA moon rock taken
> > from Honduras was $5 million, Joseph Gutheinz said he's concerned for
> > the specialists' safety.
> >
> > "What would the average criminal do for $5 million?" said Gutheinz, now
> > a lawyer in private practice in Houston. "The good news is that the moon
> > rocks in this case were taken from a vehicle and not a person."
> >
> > Marks defended the program's policies, saying that the moon rocks stolen
> > in Virginia Beach are the first such theft for the 28-year-old
> > educational outreach program.
> >
> > A reward of $1,000 is being offered for information leading to an
arrest.
> >
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> >
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Received on Mon 23 Jan 2006 05:20:17 PM PST