I am a student at the University of Phoenix pursuing a master of science degree in administration of justice and security. I was assigned by my professor, Joseph Gutheinz, the task of hunting down Maine’s Apollo 11 moon rock, which was presented to Gov. Kenneth Curtis in the early 1970s. My teacher has asked his students to conduct similar investigations since 2002, to learn investigative skills.

Professor Gutheinz came up with this moon rock project based on his experience of actually recovering the Apollo 17 Honduras goodwill moon rock while he was senior special agent with NASA’s Office of Inspector General, and went undercover in 1998 to recover it in Operation Lunar Eclipse.

Since 2002, Professor Gutheinz’s graduate students have found that many of the 215 Apollo 11 moon rocks and Apollo 17 goodwill moon rocks that President Richard Nixon gave to the 50 states and many nations have been stolen, destroyed in fires or are otherwise missing.

I started my investigation of the Maine moon rock by writing the governor a letter to see if he would help me to locate it. No luck. I subsequently called the University of Maine and talked to the secretary in the Department of Earth Science.

From there I went to the Department of Physics and Astronomy, where I spoke to Dr. Neil F. Comins. I explained to him who I was and that I was looking for Maine’s Apollo 11 moon rock.

Dr. Comins stated that he thought it was at the Maine State Museum in Augusta.

My hopes of a quick find were dashed a bit when I contacted the museum and spoke to an office assistant there. She stated that they did not have it, but she gave me a number to Woodrow Thompson, who worked with the Maine Geological Survey.

She said he would know where it could be found or could get me to the right person that could help. I found myself getting frustrated, but I continued to push forward.

Mr. Thompson steered me back to the Maine State Museum and David Work, chief scientist and curator of geology.

Mr. Work said the moon rock was at the museum and has been on exhibit since 2007. After several back-and-forth emails between Mr. Work and myself, and a confirmation from my professor, I realized that I had accomplished my mission and found Maine’s Apollo 11 Moon Rock.

So many states do not know the whereabouts of their moon rocks, or have them locked away in storage.

So Maine’s great accomplishment is simply doing what other states have not — treating an important piece of history with respect.

I hope the people of Maine take the time to come out and see their moon rock and remember those brave people at NASA that made the lunar missions possible.

– Special to the Telegram