[Bcma-l] CMA Clip Serv: No Plans to display Canada's Moon Rock
bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca
bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca
Wed, 22 Jul 2009 10:16:28 -0700
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<b>Former NASA official outraged no plans to
display Canada's moon rock</b></span></font>
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Pat Hewitt and Amy Fuller, Canadian Press, Monday, July 20, 2009 </span></font>
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With Canadians possibly walking on the moon by 2020 or soon after,
a former senior special agent for NASA says he's "outraged" Canada's
Goodwill Moon Rock remains in a museum warehouse gathering dust
and there are no plans to let the public see it.</span></font>
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Joe Gutheinz says Canada's very own piece of the moon should have
been on display for Monday's anniversary of the historic Apollo 11
moon landing.</span></font>
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"This is Canada's connection to space exploration... It was from that
point on, Canada got more and more involved in space," Gutheinz
said Monday.</span></font>
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The sliver of rock is in storage at the Canadian Museum of Nature's
warehouse, where it apparently has been locked up for as long as 30
years.</span></font>
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There had been preliminary plans to put in on display in May 2010,
when the museum opens a new wing, but that's been scrubbed,
museum spokeswoman Elizabeth McCrea said Monday.</span></font>
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"We initially had it in the preliminary design but phase one does not
include that. I haven't seen phase two. So we're still discussing
whether that is going to be on display," said McCrea, who added the
museum display space is finite. "This has more historic value than
natural history specimen value."</span></font>
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Gutheinz, who's now a lawyer in Texas, said U.S. presidents Richard
Nixon and Gerald Ford gave Goodwill Moon Rocks to 135 countries,
as well as the 50 American states and Puerto Rico.</span></font>
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The rocks came from a single, multicoloured moon boulder and
symbolized peace and unity among countries in the midst of the Cold
War and the Vietnam War.</span></font>
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The idea for the Goodwill Moon Rocks came from Harrison (Jack)
Schmitt, the only geologist ever to travel to the moon when he took
part in the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.</span></font>
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Schmitt spotted the unique boulder and brought it back to Earth,
where it was carved into numerous tiny slices weighing about 1.142
grams each. The geologist proposed to Nixon that he bestow the
pieces of the rock upon the countries of the world.</span></font>
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"It gave the whole world body the idea they had something in
common, a stake in the moon and a stake in science," said Gutheinz.</span></font>
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"I'm hoping that when the Canadian people realize that they have a
treasure that's been in storage for somewhere in the neighbourhood of
30 years, that somebody's going to say 'hey museum, it's time to place
it on display,"' said Gutheinz.</span></font>
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Jaymie Matthews, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the
University of British Columbia, was the youth ambassador who
received Canada's moon rock after he won a contest at age 13 to
become a youth representative on an International Youth Science
Tour.</span></font>
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"The Apollo 17 mission was in December of 1972, and in September
of 1973 I presented the rock to the Canadian government in ceremony
at Rideau Hall. The Governor General at the time, who was Roland</span></font>
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Michener, and the U.S. ambassador was there and the director of the
National Museum," said Matthews.</span></font>
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"In exchange for the rock they gave me an autographed hardbound
copy of the book the Birds of Canada... It was a national museum
publication," said Matthews.</span></font>
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The moon rock, encased in Lucite and with small plaque that also
displays the Canadian flag that flew in space, was on show at the
museum, then known as the National Museum of Natural Sciences,
with plaque saying "donated by Jaymie Matthews, Chatham, Ont."</span></font>
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But a few years later, in 1977, Matthews said he checked with
museum staff and was told the moon rock was part of a travelling
exhibit and had been stolen in Edmonton. While doing research for a
lecture about the moon for a course at UBC in November 2008, when
he came across a picture of his rock with somebody holding it</span></font>
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dated the year 2000.</span></font>
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He then found out the rock was in the museum's warehouse in
Alymer, Que. He said museum staff told him they had no record of it
ever having been stolen. He speculates it was a story some museum
staff member told a pesky 17-year-old who was asking about his
moon rock.</span></font>
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McCrea said the moon rock had never been in a travelling exhibition.
She said there's no record of where it was between 1973 and 1978, but
thinks it was in a museum director's office before it was put in
storage.</span></font>
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Over the years, many of the moon rocks have been lost or stolen,
Gutheinz said. In the late 90s, con artists began selling bogus moon
rocks, claiming they came from a long-dead relative who once
worked for NASA.</span></font>
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He led a sting operation called Operation Lunar Eclipse to expose the
scammers and it netted a real moon rock - the Honduras Goodwill
Moon Rock - that was being sold for US$5 million.</span></font>
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Gutheinz said Canada's moon rock would also be worth about US$5
million. He said unlike other moon rocks that are owned by NASA
and loaned to various museums, Canada owns its Goodwill Moon
Rock.</span></font>
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Gutheinz has been teaching graduate criminal justice classes at the
University of Phoenix since 2002, and has had about 1,000 students
try to locate moon rocks. Now, the rock hunt is an ongoing
assignment with 25 participating in the search this year.</span></font>
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