Yup. In other news: “Woman is detained in NASA moon rock sting,”according to MSNBC (5/20/2011):
Tried to sell treasure for $1.7 million in Southern California, authorities say
It is illegal to sell moon rocks, which are considered national treasures.
NASA agents and Riverside County sheriff’s deputies detained the woman, who has not been identified, after she met Thursday with an undercover NASA investigator at a restaurant in Lake Elsinore, about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles, the sheriff’s office said.
They swooped in after the two agreed on a price and she brought out the rock, authorities said.
They don’t yet know whether it was really lunar material or whether she herself was stungo. About 2,200 samples exist, so it’s even money just now.
But why flout the law when we can legally win? Remember New Scientist’s contest to win a Mars rock (which beats a Moon rock, surely).
And don’t forget our Uncommon Descent contest, answering the same question in the combox, for a copy of The Nature of Nature mailed to your home: Tell us what the first person to set foot on Mars should say.
Sure, NS’s prize is way glitzier but your odds of winning ours are greater. Enter both.
Multiple entries permitted here, if you happen to think of a better line later.