In 2002 a 25-year-old NASA intern named Thad Roberts stole 17 pounds of moon rocks so he could have sex on the moon with his girlfriend. After he was caught selling the used rocks on the Internet, he spent 100 months in prison. Live Science interviewed Roberts in 2011.
What was it like to possess those moon rocks? Was the experience worth the consequences?
Time is the most valuable asset of the human experience. I, like many others, am filled with awe when I reflect upon how those rocks demonstrate humanity's limitless potential, or when I ponder the romantic expression that they poetically embody. But that awe does not live within those rocks. It belongs to all of us. From experience I can say that there are more appropriate, and more productive, ways to come face-to-face with our magnificent insignificance than stealing a piece of the moon. You can ponder the vast reaches of space and time as you peer through a telescope at Orion's Great Nebula, or you can simply breathe in the experience of being in love. Whatever you do, don't repeat my mistakes.
