杏吧原创

RETURNING from vacation in the summer of 2002, NASA geochemist Dr Everett Gibson learned that a 275-kilogram safe had vanished from his lab. Situated in one of the most secure buildings on the planet, the lab was an implausible target for even the world鈥檚 greatest crime syndicates 鈥� despite the fact that the Apollo lunar samples were stored there and the street price of moon rocks was estimated at about $5 million per gram.

The theft of the safe, which contained 101.5 grams of material, including samples from every lunar landing, was in fact stranger and more pedestrian than anyone could have imagined. Late one night, three NASA interns wheeled the safe into a borrowed Jeep, planning to hawk the material to a Belgian buyer they had found online. Within days they were caught, turned in by the Belgian and arrested in an FBI sting.

鈥淭he theft of the safe was in fact stranger and more pedestrian than anyone could have imagined鈥�

After serving a six-year prison sentence, Thad Roberts 鈥� the 鈥渕astermind鈥� of this unmasterly crime 鈥� called Ben Mezrich, bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires, seeking to reveal his side of the story. Trumped up by Mezrich as 鈥渙ne of the biggest heists in US history鈥�, Sex on the Moon is the entertaining yet unsatisfying result of that collaboration.

Mezrich relates Roberts鈥檚 life as a thriller. Cast out by his Mormon family for premarital sex, Roberts finds direction by resolving to become an astronaut. He studies hard and lands a coveted internship at NASA鈥檚 Johnson Space Center, where he impresses fellow interns with pranks such as sneaking into the space shuttle simulator. In his third semester, he falls in love with a new intern. 鈥淚 want to give you the moon,鈥� he tells her.

So far, so clich茅d. Yet Roberts has trouble in the Romeo role. He seems less interested in giving her the moon than in selling it 鈥� or as much of it as he can get 鈥� for an improbably low $100,000, which he persuades her will provide them with the opportunity 鈥渢o be scientists鈥�. Apparently she falls for it.

鈥淎pparently鈥� is the key word here. Neither she nor the third intern involved in the heist would talk to Mezrich. Without their perspectives, the book is as superficial as Roberts. Even if Roberts鈥檚 riveting depiction of events is accurate 鈥� hardly certain since he has previously given different versions to other journalists 鈥� Sex on the Moon has neither the investigative breadth nor the literary depth needed to elucidate the motivations underlying the self-destruction of three promising careers.

Nor are the consequences of the heist adequately explored. In the same safe as the moon rocks were Gibson鈥檚 notebooks, containing 20 years of research, permanently lost when the cracked safe was dumped. Roberts doesn鈥檛 remember seeing them, and Mezrich nearly ignores them because they don鈥檛 fit his story arc. But in a tale about value 鈥� and values 鈥� the fate of Gibson鈥檚 notes speaks volumes: the true worth of those rocks is to be found in the research they generate.