How an Intern Stole NASA's Moon Rocks 123
schwit1 submitted a story telling the strange tale of how in 2002, rogue NASA interns stole millions of dollars in moon rocks from a building designed not to let that happen. I'd suggest taking the whole thing with a little bit of salt.
salt not required (Score:5, Informative)
Haven't read TFA yet, but the general story is true. I worked at JSC and knew Shae.
The samples were in a floor safe that they rolled out of the building on a dolly. The sting was set up as if a Belgian rockhound wanted to buy some of the samples, and they agreed to meet in Florida. The 3 other interns crossed state lines for the sting. Shae stayed in TX that weekend to attend scuba classes.
This article is hoplessly wrong pulp fiction (Score:5, Informative)
Not only is it somewhat painful to read, as far as I can tell it is mostly fiction, no fact checking at all. And it also seems partially plagiarized from this article:
http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/magazine/la-tm-moonrocks23jun06,1,1392690.story?coll=la-home-magazine [latimes.com]
And that one is by an actual reporter with actual fact checking. Obviously some of it is left up to how the perpetrators described it, but it doesn't have stupid made up stuff like a nitrogen filled lab and thermal suits and such. I would guess the crime played out more like the LA Times article, rather than this embellished piece of pulp fiction
Re:Blech (Score:5, Informative)
Thad was a real type-A personality type. Very self confident and extroverted. I don't know much about how the other students got involved in the heist, but I'd imagine Thad was the ringleader.
Shae was probably allowed in on the plan because she could have supplied the scuba gear for breathing in the nitrogen-purged storage room. There's no reason they would have needed wetsuits, though.
Re:Blech (Score:5, Informative)
Actually come to think of it... I don't think any ROOMS in 31N are purged. If anything, only the samples themselves are stored in gastight purged containers.
The breathing gear stuff is probably completely salt-worthy. All I know is Shae was going for a scuba cert at the time, and that's why she wasn't in Florida with the other 3 when they got busted.
Re:salt not required (Score:4, Informative)
Better written LATimes article (Score:4, Informative)
Can be found here [latimes.com].
Re:This article is hoplessly wrong pulp fiction (Score:5, Informative)
I did a summer internship with NASA a few years after this incident, and of course the interns all got a nice tour of the moonrock facility.
As modemboy points out, the "nitrogen filled lab" and such is pure bunk. The moonrocks are kept in nitrogen-purged safes (and in a separate room with nitrogen-filled gloveboxes used for preparing samples to send out to researchers), but the room containing the safes isn't itself filled with nitrogen. There is an "air-lock," but it's the usual type of clean-room airlock, used to keep out dust between the changing room where you suit up in disposable clean-room clothes and the lab itself.
Re:This article is hoplessly wrong pulp fiction (Score:5, Informative)
Re:This article is hoplessly wrong pulp fiction (Score:4, Informative)
Others have studied the rats gaseous emissions directly.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/845703 [nih.gov]
Re:This article is hoplessly wrong pulp fiction (Score:5, Informative)
IIRC there was some confusion on the issue awhile back in that some small moon rocks were sealed inside paperweights and given as gifts very early on. This caused some brouhaha when someone who found themselves in possession of one wanted it authenticated and NASA hadn't known about it.
Picture of Tiffany - You know you're curious (Score:5, Informative)
yeah yeah this isn't fark, but how often do we get cute female cat burglars to ogle at?
http://www.baylor.edu/biology/index.php?id=32089 /would hit it
Re:Looking for better interns? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Mythbusters? Bleah. (Score:3, Informative)
However, the section they did about heat sensors was pretty definitive. They had automatic heat sensors as well as infrared cameras. When they put on heavy wetsuits (thicker than the 2mm mentioned in TFA), and quickly entered the room (so the suits would not have time to heat up), their heat signatures were still clearly visible on the infrared camera, and they were unable to fool the automatic infrared detectors. However, later they did find at least 2 ways to fool the sensors that were surprisingly simple. But the wetsuits were a very obvious failure.
I also agree about the rocket-assisted car. They mounted the rockets on the roof, rather than at the rear, and angled them upward in a way that would prevent the car from getting airborne... what kind of test of the myth is that? (It should be noted, however, that the local police and State Patrol in the area the actual incident was supposed to have taken place, deny it completely and have no records of the event. If it really had happened, and I were a local, I would turn it into a museum dedicated to stupidity.)
I question the methodologies used by Mythbusters a lot of the time. And I happen to agree about the Robin Hood bit too. I have split arrows myself. Not the full length, and never on purpose, but it does happen. Maybe carbon fiber arrows split more readily than wood... but it just goes to show how many variables there are. And I think they could have done a great many others better, too. But this particular section (about fooling heat sensors) was well-done and very convincing. And somewhat surprising.
Re:Mythbusters? Bleah. (Score:3, Informative)
OK.. for starters, the arrow thing. You never said you saw the arrow being split, just that you saw a "split" arrow. I could go in my shop and make one for you in about 5 minutes. They did test with cheap arrows at first, then went and found straight grain arrows to test with again. They proved that its nearly impossible to split an arrow unless it's made of bamboo. You probably missed that part while you were getting a beer.. again. This was debunked strictly because they were unable to replicate the myth, and were unable to find any evidence that this had actually happened, anywhere.
The rocket car.. The air force has never sold working RATO/JATO engines to anyone. Ever. They confirmed this. The FIRST time they tried it, the rockets they used were 3 hobby engines chained to produce the same thrust as a RATO engine. They brought in rocket experts to do the math. Now, if your talking about the SECOND time they tried it, they did have a single engine custom made for them to JATO specs by a rocket manufacturer. It was not cobbled together. It exploded on launch due to some defect in the fuel pack. They debunked the car myth because no one has any evidence the original event ever happened. No police reports, no death or missing person reports, no missing RATOs.. nothing. not a singed hair or crushed tire to be found besides the text on your computer screen.
Now, yes, I will say that occasional I do yell at the TV when they are doing something plainly wrong, but I do think that most of their effort is reasonable. Next time try watching more than ten minutes of an episode before you launch into bald faced inaccuracies, you twit. penis.
Re:Mythbusters? Bleah. (Score:3, Informative)
Well, I have seen one being split.
They were unable to find evidence because their researchers are lazy. Here, in just a few minutes, you've heard from two people who've seen arrows split. Visit archery forums and you'll find hundreds more.
Which is typical of the Mythbusters - when their lazy and half ass methods fail to replicate a myth, they pronounced it busted and move on. And ignorant jackasses like yourself then propagate their claims.