[meteorite-list] Laws and Lunar-cy

[David R. Vann]

A careful reading of entries in the Congressional Record would support the
following:

All specimens brought back from the Apollo missions are owned by the U.S.
Government, and are under the purview of NASA. Some few samples were given out
during that period as 'good will' gifts. These were to other governments, and
their whereabouts are largely known. The sample given to the Honduran gov. ended
up in private hands. Samples given to astronauts in honor of their service
cannot be sold by the astronaut, nor their heirs. If the family no longer wants
the sample, it can be 'loaned' to a museum, or returned to NASA. ALL samples
loaned out or 'donated' by NASA are *technically* still theirs, and remain under
their purview. They can be recalled at any time for 'research ' purposes.
Nowhere is there a specific statute saying it is illegal to own lunar samples.
It is, however, illegel to posses someone else's stuff. Consequently, we don't
need a staute explicitly limiting your possession of samples that are legally
owned by NASA. Ergo, unless there there is a clear legal trail (such as for the
camera cartridge dust), there are no samples of lunar material out there that
you can lay claim to. 
A friend/colleague of mine worked on the Apollo samples back when. He indicates
that it is not inconceivable that someone 'removed' tiny pieces that  went
unaccounted for in the all the chemical, etc. analyses done back then, but
things were pretty tight. Any such pieces are essentially untraceable and un
-provenanced (if such is a word). And, if it can be proved that it is a real
lunar sample, NASA can take it back, as it would have been obtained under false
pretenses, i.e. theft.

So, there is a law, it says you can't take other's stuff. The legislature did
not a need to write another law that says, you can't take NASA's stuff. But,
what's NASA's is NASA's, and they can take it back from you if you have it.




David R. Vann, Ph.D.
Department of Earth and Environmental Science
THE UNIVERSITY of PENNSYLVANIA
240 S. 33rd St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6316
drvann at sas.upenn.edu
office: 215-898-4906
FAX: 215-898-0964