Big Muley

Big Muley is currently stored at the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.

Discovery

Big Muley was discovered on the eastern rim of Plum crater (Station 1) in the Descartes highlands of the Moon. Astronaut Charlie Duke said as he was picking up the sample, "If I fall into Plum crater getting this rock, Muehlberger has had it." In a 1996 letter and a 1997 e-mail message, Bill Muehlberger said:

Big Muley was a problem from the moment we saw it on TV (from the TV camera on the LRV). The crew had been told to pick up nothing larger than their fist – the lab types could analyze remarkably small pieces and get reproducible results. So, when we spotted Big Muley with the television camera and saw what looked like a large rectangle flashing at us, we jumped to the conclusion that it was a crystal – or cleavage – face of plagioclase feldspar. That made the rock an anorthosite which, according to our pre-mission interpretations, should not be present at this landing site. Further, there was a small crater on our side (between the Rover and Big Muley) that we thought could be a bounce crater caused by this rock on landing. The direction suggested that this could have been from Theophilus, a large, relatively young crater that had been proposed as a source for some material that might be scattered across the landing area. So, I put in a request for the crew to pick it up as they returned to the LRV. We had no idea of size – it was the first sampling stop on the mission – but, once the crew got close, we realized that it was bigger than the max size suggested for return from the Moon and then Charlie started complaining about it(s size) and about his struggle to pick it up. It turned out to be the largest rock returned from the Moon! And it turned out to be a useful rock for the researchers.