'' Moon for Sale'' is a 2007 British

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

directed and produced by Nick Davidson. The film premiered on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

on 10 April 2007 and has played worldwide since. The primary focus of the documentary is on the value of the Moon to scientists and collectors. Dr.

Harrison Schmitt Harrison Hagan Schmitt (born July 3, 1935) is an American geologist, retired NASA astronaut, university professor, former U.S. senator from New Mexico, and the most recent living person—and only person without a background in military aviation ...

, an

Apollo 17 Apollo 17 (December 7–19, 1972) was the final mission of NASA's Apollo program, the most recent time humans have set foot on the Moon or traveled beyond low Earth orbit. Commander Gene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt walked on ...

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

, is seen discussing harvesting

Helium 3 Helium-3 (3He see also helion) is a light, stable isotope of helium with two protons and one neutron (the most common isotope, helium-4, having two protons and two neutrons in contrast). Other than protium (ordinary hydrogen), helium-3 is the ...

on the Moon to meet Earth's energy needs. Also discussed in the documentary is the black market industry in stolen Apollo-era

Moon rock Moon rock or lunar rock is rock originating from Earth's Moon. This includes lunar material collected during the course of human exploration of the Moon, and rock that has been ejected naturally from the Moon's surface and landed on Earth as ...

s, which sell for as much as $5 million a

gram The gram (originally gramme; SI unit symbol g) is a Physical unit, unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one one thousandth of a kilogram. Originally defined as of 1795 as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure wate ...

. Specifically, the viewer is introduced to a

sting operation In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person attempting to commit a crime. A typical sting will have an undercover law enforcement officer, detective, or co-operative member of the public play a role a ...

known as Operation Lunar Eclipse, where for the first time a Moon rock, the Honduras Apollo 17 Goodwill Moon rock, is recovered by US federal agents.Making a Mint out of the Moon
''

BBC Horizon ''Horizon'' is an ongoing and long-running British documentary film, documentary television series on BBC Two that covers science and philosophy. History The programme was first broadcast on 2 May 1964 with "The World of Buckminster Fuller" whic ...

'', Nick Davidson, April 8, 2007.

References

Documentary films about outer space Moon in film Stolen and missing Moon rocks {{sci-documentary-film-stub

See also

References