[meteorite-list] LOTS OF MOON ROCKS GONE?

From: Galactic Stone & Ironworks <meteoritemike_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:13:50 -0500
Message-ID: <CAKBPJW9=gB-39y7gwPiDKMFUAV5do3PG-1t0k-2VQB_ade82ng_at_mail.gmail.com>

Hi Randy,

Thanks for the input and clarification on this issue. Again, the
media takes the sensational route when it comes to meteorite
reporting.

When I first read the article, the details surrounding the missing
specimens was not made clear, and I had assumed that large
"rock-sized" specimens were missing from the central holding facility.
 (Johnson?) The photos of the large rocks accompanying the article
furthered this misconception. I should know better by now.

Best regards,

MikeG

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On 12/12/11, Randy Korotev <korotev at wustl.edu> wrote:
> I'd like to address this issue of missing Apollo samples as a researcher.
>
> I just checked my inventory.  I have 999 (really!) line items of
> samples from the 6 Apollo and 3 Russian Luna landing sites from
> NASA.  I can think of only 1 or 2 other researchers who might have
> more.  The total mass is 320.064 g (0.08% of the collection).  That's
> an average of 0.32 g/sample.  But, even that number is
> misleading.  The mass distribution looks like this.
>
> http://meteorites.wustl.edu/Korotev_NASA_Apollo_&_Luna_samples.jpg
>
> Only 49 of the samples exceed 1 gram is mass.  All of the samples >3
> g are not "rocks" but regolith (alias soil or dust) samples.  The
> smallest samples are all thin sections.
>
> My point is that every article about this issue shows a photo of a
> big rock, and NASA just doesn't issue big rocks to us
> researchers.  As someone else mentioned, I suspect the actual mass of
> missing material is not large.
>
> Randy Korotev
>
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Received on Mon 12 Dec 2011 04:13:50 PM PST