NASA SWAT TEAM

Perhaps this sample was a shoddy one in comparison to the others.

Sure, maybe.  Or maybe it was genuine and was stolen.  Or maybe Jesus turned it into petrified wood.  I dunno.  I only know that the geologists who have studied the Apollo lunar samples overwhelmingly agree that they are genuine.  I would say 'unanimously agree,' but I'll leave open the possibility that there are some geologists who believe otherwise.  I haven't yet found any of those, though.

But did they study this lunar sample?

But did they study this lunar sample?

It doesn't matter if there are fakes if there are real ones.

Real, or just good enough to fool the world?

The plot thickens.

But did they study this lunar sample?

Nope.  And there's not any reason to believe that anyone ever should have taken it seriously as a genuine lunar sample.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2009-09-14-moon-rock_N.htm

The Rijksmuseum, more noted as a repository for 17th century Dutch paintings, announced last month it had had its plum-sized "moon" rock tested, only to discover it was a piece of petrified wood, possibly from Arizona. The museum said it inherited the rock from the estate of a former prime minister.

The real Dutch moon rocks are in a natural history museum. But the misidentification raised questions about how well countries have safeguarded their presents from Washington.

[...]

In fact, the Netherlands is one of the few countries where the location of both the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 gift rocks is known. Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand are others — though none has rocks from both missions on permanent public display and some have been kept in storage for decades.

The Amsterdam case appears to be not fraud but the result of poor vetting by the Rijksmuseum.

Spokeswoman Xandra van Gelder said the museum checked with NASA after receiving the rock in 1992 from the estate of the late Prime Minister Willem Drees. NASA told the museum, without seeing it, that it was "possible" it was a moon rock.

But it weighed a whopping 89 grams (3.1 ounces). In addition, its gold-colored cardboard plaque does not describe it as a moon rock.

The U.S. ambassador gave Drees the rock during an Oct. 9, 1969 visit by the Apollo 11 astronauts to the Netherlands. Drees's grandson, also named Willem, told the AP his grandfather had been out of office for more than a decade and was nearly deaf and blind in 1969, though his mind was still sharp.

"My guess is that he did not hear well what was said," said the grandson. "He may have formed his own idea about what it was."

The family never thought to question the story before donating the rock, to which it had not attached great importance or monetary value.