Alaska lunar sample displays

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Plaques on the California Apollo 11 lunar sample display, similar to the display in Alaska

The Alaska lunar sample displays are two commemorative plaques consisting of small fragments of Moon specimen brought back with the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 lunar missions and given in the 1970s to the people of the state of Alaska by United States President Richard Nixon as goodwill gifts.

Description[edit]

Apollo 11[edit]

Main article: Apollo 11 lunar sample display

At the request of Nixon, NASA had about 250 presentation plaques made following Apollo 11 in 1969. Each included about four rice-sized particles of Moon dust from the mission totaling about 50 mg.[1][2] The Apollo 11 lunar sample display has an acrylic plastic button containing the Moon dust mounted with the recipient's country or state flag that had been to the Moon and back. All 135 countries received the display, as did the 50 states of the United States and the U.S. provinces and the United Nations.[1]

The plaques were given as gifts by Nixon in 1970.[1]

Apollo 17[edit]

Main article: Apollo 17 lunar sample display
Message on Apollo 17 plaque

The sample Moon rock collected during the Apollo 17 mission was later named lunar basalt 70017, and dubbed the Goodwill rock.[3] Pieces of the rock weighing about 1.14 grams[2] were placed inside a piece of acrylic lucite, and mounted along with a flag from the country that had flown on Apollo 17 it would be distributed to.[3]

In 1973 Nixon had the plaques sent to 135 countries, and to the United States with its territories, as a goodwill gesture.[3]

History[edit]

Alaska Transportation and Industry Museum

The Alaska Apollo 11 lunar commemorative wooden plaque display was on public viewing at the Alaska Transportation Museum in Anchorage in 1973. In September of that year, the museum burned down under suspicious circumstances and the Apollo 11 Alaska lunar plaque display was reported missing. It is suspected that an arsonist started the museum fire on September 6, 1973.[4][5][6][7]

Arthur C. Anderson, an individual Plaintiff v. The State of Alaska an Alaskan State Museums, and agency of the State, Defendants also known as Anderson v. Alaskan State Museums is an Alaska State civil case filed on December 20, 2010 by attorney Daniel P. Harris in the Superior Court of Alaska Third Judicial District at Anchorage. The subject in this case is the Apollo 11 Moon Rock and plaque that was presented in 1969 by Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States, to Keith Harvey Miller, Governor of Alaska.[8]

Elizabeth Riker

After a 2010 story written by Elizabeth Riker for the Capital City Weekly[9] Arthur Coleman Anderson learned that a Moon rock he says he found as a 17-year-old after a fire at the Transportation Museum in Anchorage filed a lawsuit against Alaska and the Alaskan State Museums to determine title of the object.[5][6][10][11][8][12][13]

The missing Moon rocks were returned as of December 7, 2012,[14] and both the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 displays are at the Alaska State Museum in Juneau.[1][3]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d Pearlman, Robert. "Where today are the Apollo 11 goodwill lunar sample displays?". CollectSPACE. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved November 2, 2012.
  2. ^ a b "Tales of lunar rocks through the years". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Associated Press. 2012-05-23. Archived from the original on 2023-02-06. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
  3. ^ a b c d Pearlman, Robert. "Where today are the Apollo 17 goodwill lunar sample displays". CollectSPACE. Archived from the original on 2012-10-15. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
  4. ^ "Alaska's Missing Moon Rocks In Ownership Dispute". Redorbit.com. July 15, 2011. Retrieved November 12, 2011.
  5. ^ a b Radford, Richard (June 29, 2011). "Alaska's missing moon rock reappears after 37 year eclipse". Capital City Weekly. Archived from the original on 2011-07-05. Retrieved October 8, 2012.
  6. ^ a b O'Malley, Julia (July 2, 2011). "Alaska's moon rock mystery unfolds in court". Anchorage Daily News. Archived from the original on December 10, 2012. Retrieved November 12, 2012.
  7. ^ Sanz, Alex (June 28, 2011). "Alaska man claims to have missing Apollo-era moon rock". KHOU 11. Archived from the original on September 14, 2012. Retrieved November 12, 2012.
  8. ^ a b "Arthur C. Anderson v. The State of Alaska and Alaska State Museums" (PDF). Superior Court of the State of Alaska, Third District. 20 December 2012. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
  9. ^ Riker, Elizabeth (August 18, 2010). "Guest viewpoint: Searching for Alaska's lost lunar treasure". Capital City Weekly. Archived from the original on 2011-07-08. Retrieved October 8, 2012.
  10. ^ "NASA has Alaska moon rocks as court sorts out ownership". Alaska Dispatch. August 10, 2012. Retrieved October 8, 2012.
  11. ^ Joling, Dan (July 15, 2011). "Coleman Anderson Claims Ownership Of Alaska's Missing Moon Rocks". Huffington Post. Retrieved November 12, 2012.
  12. ^ Graber, Christoph Beat; Burri-Nenova, Mira (2008). Intellectual Property and Traditional Cultural Expressions in a Digital Environment. Edward Elgar Publishing, ISBN 1847209211.
  13. ^ Forgey, Pat (August 9, 2012). "Alaska's moon rocks back in NASA's hands: Court to decide ownership of Apollo 11 mission rocks". Juneau Empire. Archived from the original on December 12, 2012. Retrieved November 12, 2012.
  14. ^ Pearlman, Robert Z. (2012). "Alaska Reclaims Its Missing Moon Rocks". Space.com. Retrieved 2012-12-19.

Further reading[edit]

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