Souvenirs

[John_L]

Has anyone read anything about the astronauts being able to keep a souvenir moon rock or moon dust or something to that effect? Seems to me, if I traveled all the way to the moon, I'd want a souvenir. Not anything that wouldn't be examined by scientists when it got back, but something that, at the end of the day, became my 'souvenir' from the moon. I know NASA shared much of the moon rocks with the world science community, which in most cases, became property of the state, and wound up as souvenirs for politicians, and that got me to wonder if the astronauts themselves were allowed a souvenir.

 

[Ark]

Even if they weren't allowed one, I'm sure a couple of the guys managed to sneak one out with them.

 

[Notebook]

I think any astronauts would be very wary about souveniers after this:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_15_postage_stamp_scandal

N.

 

[garyw]

No they didn't because the moon rocks are US Government property. They were allowed to take small trinkets into orbit for friends and family.

 

[David413]

Al Bean actually used some residual moon dust in some of his paintings.

He is the only artist in the world to use real moon dust on his paintings. When he began painting, he realized that keepsake patches from his space suit were dirty with moon dust. He adds tiny pieces of the patches to his paintings, which make them unique. He also uses the hammer used to pound the flagpole into the lunar surface to texture his paintings.

The quote is from this website:

https://sites.google.com/a/burrburton.org/astronomy/guest-speakers/al-beanhttp://