Moon rock

[3][4][5] The Soviet Union abandoned its attempts at a crewed lunar program in the 1970s, but succeeded in landing three robotic Luna spacecraft with the capability to collect and return small samples to Earth.

The Chang’e-6 probe withstood the high temperatures and collected the samples by drilling into the Moon's surface and scooping soil and rocks with a mechanical arm, according to a statement from the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

The collected rock was crushed, melted and drawn into filaments about one third of the diameter of a human hair, then spun into thread and woven into cloth.

A Moon rock known as "NWA 12691", which weighs 13.5 kilograms (30 lb), was found in the Sahara Desert at the Algerian and Mauritanian borders in January 2017,[20] and went on sale for $2.5 million in 2020.

[22] Based on the age-dating technique of "crater counting," the youngest basaltic eruptions are believed to have occurred about 1.2 billion years ago,[23] but scientists do not possess samples of these lavas.

The Apollo Moon rocks were collected using a variety of tools, including hammers, rakes, scoops, tongs, and core tubes.

The main repository for the Apollo Moon rocks is the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

One of these, called the Touch Rock, is displayed in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.[28] The idea of having touchable Moon rocks at a museum was suggested by Apollo scientist Farouk El-Baz, who was inspired by his childhood pilgrimage to Mecca where he touched the Black Stone (which in Islam is believed to be sent down from the heavens).

[citation needed] Naturally transported Moon rocks in the form of lunar meteorites are sold and traded among private collectors.

[citation needed] Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt picked up a rock "composed of many fragments, of many sizes, and many shapes, probably from all parts of the Moon".

The fragments were presented encased in an acrylic sphere, mounted on a wood plaque which included the recipients' flag which had also flown aboard Apollo 17.

Because of their rarity on Earth and the difficulty of obtaining more, Moon rocks have been frequent targets of theft and vandalism, and many have gone missing or were stolen.