[meteorite-list] How an Intern Stole NASA's Moon Rocks

From: Mexicodoug <mexicodoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 09 May 2009 23:35:11 -0400
Message-ID: <8CB9F37747CF563-12BC-3687_at_WEBMAIL-MZ09.sysops.aol.com>

Hello Walter, List!

This theft of Moon rocks story has seriously been the embarrassment of
the century for JSC. Thankfully time is passing and wounds are healing.
It was a very sad chapter for responsibility and ethics for the entire
academic community.

Mike said:
"Tie up the thieves to poles out in the open (third world style) and
pelt them mercilessly with weathered-up UNWA from the Tucson bargain
bin. ;)"

Mike, EDITORIAL
The comment "Third World Style" just hit a nerve. Did you know he
dreamed on going on ANSMET expeditions?

Mr. Roberts nearly served out his entire term (served 7 and a half
years) without much judicial mercy, which was twice the guideline as
the judge was responding to political pressures in sentencing. When you
say,

"The "ringleader" was sentenced to 8 years in prison - which here in
America means he probably served about 2-3 years and then walked.
non-violent crime, ivy league white defendant with previously clean
record, good behavior and early release"

It's a bit inciting and unrelated to this case, even you are just
expressing general frustration with the United States judicial system
which many of us may and may not agree. I suspect the judge who
sentenced these aspiring scientists shared this line of thinking. Oh,
Roberts was definitely not Ivy League. He lifted himself up and then
crashed and burned all by his own bootstraps.

The political nature of w
hat happened is the driver here. Far from the
research and material allegedly compromised (Is there any specific
place in the scientific literature where this was cited as compromising
results?), it was a shot into the heart of public faith of national
curation of taxpayer financed recovered material from the moon and
ANSMET in what NASA would like everyone to have believed was the Fort
Knox of science. Mr. Roberts was made a whipping boy to divert
attention from the whole fiasco as this sort of failure IMO should have
had much greater repercussions. Sure, some positive changes were made
as a result, but who can say with a straight face that "rogue interns"
are only to blame, and weave a Tom Clancy novel out the smokescreen.
The labeling of them as "Rogue Interns" at te time only gives me the
willies that taxpayers' were being mislead, a rogue asteroid, maybe,
but please ... these are three typical nerds gone completely
unsupervised in the heart of America's treasure chest. It strikes me as
odd that three interns with different backgrounds all passing the
incredibly competitive and difficult intern selection process would all
go for this, that would have left many of us in the dust
intellectually. We are talking three highly talented people here that
are all typical high achievers, great leaders, and hand picked by NASA
for that quality specifically - not brainwashed zombies...

Consider the punishment for the two=2
0female accomplices. They received
no prison time (a special waiver from sentencing guidelines), and were
able to continue their education so they could make a positive
contribution to society. Now, if I am to understand the arguments of
the prosecution, Mr. Roberts was the "Mastermind" who was the brightest
of the bunch, and the other two were zombies that just had temporary
lapses of judgement. However, elsewhere Fowler is described as a woman
who challenged Cool Hand Thad to the point of earning his great respect
and becoming his dream girl. If I follow that so-called genius logic,
it was mastermind Roberts who could have made the most valuable
contributions to society, yet he was the only intern they nailed (and
Darren claims Bubba did too). Of course I don't follow that logic. I
just suspect "third-world" justice was imparted and it was an implicit
case of gender discrimination for a more noble cause of needing a
scapegoat, as the women no doubt were equally qualified in everything
and probably more meticulous instead of arrogant fools likeThad
Roberts.

I suspect that the theft was not much more difficult to execute than a
bunch of high-schoolers stealing a road sign due to the lack of a few
minor but key appropriate controls. I mean, these guys stole a 600
pound safe from JSC - and carted it out on a WalMart dolly which they
bought a few hours before, in all this said to be "premeditation for
0Amonths". Many things just don't exactly add up on a critical reading.

Mr. Robert's view is especially amusing in understanding his motives
here. He justified the whole thing by saying that these rocks would not
be missed because they were already contaminated as they were used
leftover returns of material that had been subjected to scientific test
and which was supposedly never to be used again - (apparently there is
some basis to this, though rife with misinterpretation). He argued that
the rocks were locked up never to see the light of day again and thus
he was doing a favor, this physics geek, by liberating them. Perhaps
his real motivation, was his own admission of being out of his league,
but hopelessly obsessed, in trying to impress to assist in getting
intimate with former Texas cheerleader, Ms. Fowler, the whole time pic:
http://www.baylor.edu/content/imglib/19876.jpg . So much that it had
destroyed his marriage with his wife Kaydee at the same time this whole
thing was planned (Kaydee herself a woman with a superb and strong
mind). So Roberts was clearly messed up as a boy in a broken marriage
trying to impress his new exciting woman he thought he couldn't have.
He went to the extreme to get her attention...

Now, 8 years later the first thing he does when he is released, this
diabolical guy does - is go after her again to beg to resume an 8-year
old intimate relationship. Well, I'm sure jail war
ped his mind, but it
doesn't meet the smell test for "manipulative" and "mastermind" that he
was labeled with - more evidence of a nerd who just never understood
the real world; that this was third-world justice of the most arbitrary
kind, and this guy was just wetting his diapers like the rest of them
while dreaming he was Mr. Crown of the Thomas Crown Affair pursuing
Rene Z.

This story is nothing new, just a variant of the 2004 article posted to
the list from the LA Times. Except, I hadn't notice the comment that
Mr. Roberts and Ms. Fowler laid out all the stolen rocks on a bed in a
hotel room and had intimate relations among the stolen moon rocks and
meteorites, shortly after their heist. Well, when comments like this
start getting cycled, you can bet that a potential movie deal is not
far off. That is the only all-American part I see in this whole scandal.

One of the oddest things to me was the claim that there were 6
notebooks containing a researcher's original notes packed in the safe
with the rocks. Apparently this claim was never proven despite the
FBI's forensic resources. Considering all of the interns turned against
each other looking for clemency, I find it surprising, that this was
categorically denied, if in fact, they had been there. What is even
more amusing is that a scientist would store his notebooks in the
relatively small safe with all of these specimens. Of course it
 is
possible, but it just seems awfully strange that handwritten unbackedup
notes of 33 years of one leading researcher would be commingled with
Lunar material under any conditions, rather than store them with his
own things. In any case again, at first reading and makes you think
twice, considering this was the most experienced lab in the world...

In the end, what happened with Fowler, who was an equal during the
theft?

Ans: She is a graduate student now at Texas A&M College Station in
Wayne Versaw's group being financed by the US government under an NSF
grant. That's taxpayer supported. I am sure she is a bright woman, and
life hasn't been easy, so if you root for the underdog, I guess it is
almost admirable what she's managed to do...

And What of Shae Saur, the younger woman who wanted a piece of the
action and acted as the lookout during the operation, and kept the
stolen goods in her storage locker while these dreamers went about
emailing the hot goods for sales?

Ans: She became president of the Society of Women Engineers as she
worked on her engineering degree at the University of Texas in San
Antonio. I can't help think of the reforms she must have made to
deserve this, not to mention that here again is an example of a woman
that is a leader, not an automaton programmed by ol' Roberts, acting of
all things - as a role model to women engineers.

And what of Axe
l?

Ans: He was a list contributor a while back. But it seems he never
received a thank you token Moon Rock from NASA as others including
myself thought would be most appropriate.

I?ll stop there, because the rest of the actors will most likely
receive a bit of unneeded notoriety when the movie comes out...

Best wishes,
Doug





-----Original Message-----
From: Walter Branch <waltbranch at birch.net>
To: Galactic Stone & Ironworks <meteoritemike at gmail.com>
Cc: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Sent: Sat, 9 May 2009 2:35 pm
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] How an Intern Stole NASA's Moon Rocks


Hello Mike,?
?
You really should consider switching to decafe ;-)?
?
-Walter Branch?
-----------------------------------------------------?
----- Original Message ----- From: "Galactic Stone & Ironworks"
<meteoritemike at gmail.com>?
To: "Martin Altmann" <altmann at meteorite-martin.de>?
Cc: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>?
Sent: Saturday, May 09, 2009 10:40 AM?
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] How an Intern Stole NASA's Moon Rocks?
?
Hi Martin,?
?
I did finally click on some of the embedded links in the story and saw?
the FBI followup article. The "ring leader" was sentenced to 8 years?
in prison - which here in America means he probably served about 2-3?
years and then walked. (non-violent crime, ivy league white defendant?
with previously clean record, good behavior and early rel
ease)?
?
IMO, that sentence should have been 10 years served to deter any?
future idiocy of that nature.?
?
It made me sick to my stomach to imagine the loss of data and study?
potential these specimens suffered at the hands of these criminals.?
As a collector it rankles me, I cannot imagine how the scientists?
studying the samples must have felt. Perhaps a more fitting sentence?
for the thieves would be stoning by ordinary chondrites. Tie up the?
thieves to poles out in the open (third world style) and pelt them?
mercilessly with weathered-up UNWA from the Tucson bargain bin. ;)?
?
So, is there any list of missing lunar samples? How many pilfered?
moon rocks are floating around the collector's market, or sitting in?
someone's safe??
?
Best regards,?
?
MikeG?
?
?
On 5/9/09, Martin Altmann <altmann at meteorite-martin.de> wrote:?
> Yes, a safe was lifted there,?
> as well as the part of the Good-Will Moon Rock, presented to Honduras
was?
> stolen and was tried to be trafficked in USA.?
> Currently the Apollo-sample of Malta is missing.?
>?
> Once I saw a strange documentation (was it on BBC or on discovery?),
where?
> it was stated, that most of the Apollo-samples once distributed to
the?
> nations of the World would have been lost and are missing.?
> Is that true??
> (was a strange documentati
on, a man with a big belly and a full beard?
> driving an old car was shown as to be the "special agent" of NASA, >
searching?
> for the missing Moon rocks...).?
>?
> Let's open a new thread: Identify the Moon Rock given to your
country!?
>?
> I start.?
> Germany should have 3 Moon Rocks.?
> Two are given on permanent loan - one to the Technische Museum
Berlin,?
> the other is housed in the exhibition of the Ries-Crater-Museum in?
> Noerdlingen (the astronauts got their a geological training in the?
> Ries-Crater by Eugene Shoemaker).?
> The Good-Will-piece donated to the Federal Rep. of Germany (don't
know?
> whether the former German Democratic Rep. got one too?),?
> must be somewhere in the Deutsche Museum in Munich.?
> Wasn't a longer time there, have to go there again,?
> so I don't know, whether it's currently on display or somewhere in
the?
> storage (museums in Germany are sometimes somewhat strange in
estimating, > if?
> an item could be attractive for the visitors or not...).?
>?
> Best!?
> Martin?
>?
> -----Urspr?ngliche Nachricht-----?
> Von: Galactic Stone & Ironworks [mailto:meteoritemike at gmail.com]?
> Gesendet: Samstag, 9. Mai 2009 16:11?
> An: Martin Altmann?
> Cc: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com?
> Betreff: Re: [meteorite-list] How an Intern Stole NASA's Moon Rocks?
>?
> I
s the story true? I read it and it sounds like pop-culture fiction.?
>?
> I've never heard anything about this elsewhere.?
>?
> If it's true, the thieves should be treated like Moon Rocks -?
> sterilized and then locked up forever.?
>?
>?
> On 5/9/09, Martin Altmann <altmann at meteorite-martin.de> wrote:?
>> Was that article an exercise in style??
>>?
>> At least...due to the efforts of a few enthusiasts on the globe,?
>> everyone can have now his piece of Moon Rock at a price of a
paperback >> :-)?
>>?
>> Martin?
>>?
>>?
>>?
>>?
>> -----Urspr?ngliche Nachricht-----?
>> Von: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com?
>> [mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] Im Auftrag von
Pete?
>> Pete?
>> Gesendet: Samstag, 9. Mai 2009 12:58?
>> An: cynapse at charter.net; meteoritelist meteoritelist?
>> Betreff: Re: [meteorite-list] How an Intern Stole NASA's Moon Rocks?
>>?
>>?
>>?
>>?
>> Thieves.....I hate them!?
>>?
>> ----------------------------------------?
>>> From: cynapse at charter.net?
>>> To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com?
>>> Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 23:30:00 -0500?
>>> Subject: [meteorite-list] How an Intern Stole NASA's Moon Rocks?
>>>?
>>> http://gizmodo.com/5242736/how-an-intern-stole-nasas-moon-rocks?
>>>?
>>?
>>?
>> ______________________________________________?
>> http://www.meteoritecen
tral.com?
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>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list?
>>?
>?
>?
> --?
> .........................................................?
> Michael Gilmer (Louisiana, USA)?
> Member of the Meteoritical Society.?
> Member of the Bayou Region Stargazers Network.?
> Websites - http://www.galactic-stone.com and
http://www.glassthrower.com?
> ..........................................................?
>?
> ______________________________________________?
> http://www.meteoritecentral.com?
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>?
?
-- .........................................................?
Michael Gilmer (Louisiana, USA)?
Member of the Meteoritical Society.?
Member of the Bayou Region Stargazers Network.?
Websites - http://www.galactic-stone.com and
http://www.glassthrower.com?
..........................................................?
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Received on Sat 09 May 2009 11:35:11 PM PDT