Earth may get more moon rocks in 2018, when NASA plans a manned lunar landing. Until then, as scientists and collectors know, supply and demand are worlds apart. The only sources? Rare lunar meteorites, soil from Soviet probes, and the 842 pounds of rubble carted back by Apollo astronauts from 1969 to 1972. NASA keeps most of its 1,500-rock cache in Houston, lending out 400 samples a year for research and display. Presidents Nixon and Ford gave pea-size “goodwill” slivers to 134 countries, 50 states, and Puerto Rico. For other interested parties, auctions can be a legal option—if the rock for sale isn’t U.S. government property. At Sotheby’s in 1993, a Soviet sample fetched $442,500. On eBay, a meteorite cut can go for $40 to $100,000, depending on size, quality, and authentication. Then there’s the black market. Joseph Gutheinz, a former NASA investigator, says Apollo rocks that have vanished over the years can turn up with five-million-dollar tags. “They simply mean more and more as the years go by.” —Jeremy Berlin

Photograph by Tyrone Turner



If we aren’t alone in the universe, how would we treat our intergalactic neighbors?

The new movie District 9 considers this question by envisioning a present-day Earth where humans and extraterrestrials coexist, albeit uneasily.

Two decades after a colossal spacecraft has stalled over Johannesburg, South Africa, its passengers—millions of confused, malnourished aliens called “prawns” by disparaging humans—have been ghettoized into a grimy, apartheid-echoing militarized zone known as District 9. Then an evil corporation called Multi-National United decides to relocate them to an even more bantustan-like tent city. The subsequent eviction process touches on a host of legal and ethical issues like: What would earthlings do to ET visitors? Kill them? Conduct medical experiments? Attempt to extract valuable weaponry? All of the above?

To aid in our speculation, Pop Omnivore talked to Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the nonprofit SETI Institute (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) and author of the new book Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist’s Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

The new movie Moon is a sci-fi throwback—a simple, hermetic story of isolation, identity, and (in)sanity.

In a matter of minutes, the 2001-indebted scene is set: It’s the near future, and a guy named Sam Bell (played by Sam Rockwell) is toiling alone in a mining station on the moon, where he harvests a clean-energy substance called Helium-3 to power a depleted Earth. His only company is a HAL-like robot called GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey). His only goal is to play out the last two weeks of his three-year contract.

Even though the film is set in the future, some things about the space station look familiar to children of the television age. When Sam gets a haircut, GERTY uses a gadget that looks a lot like a Flowbee.

In zero gravity, astronauts crave earthly comforts. That’s why they strap their heads to foam “pillows” at night. Alas, liquids pool or slosh and must be ingested from a pouch via straw. “You feel like an insect sucking juices out of another insect,” says astronaut Don Pettit. So, on a mission last November, he made a cup from a plastic sheet sealed with tape.