During 1999-2002, I led “The Committee on Planetary And Lunar Exploration” (COMPLEX) at The National Academy Of Sciences, which treats programs in that area. Our primary responsibility at that time was to study the problems attached to the delivery to Earth of Martian samples that have been collected and stored on that planet by NASA spacecraft. This operation still remains to occur.

My work on the Apollo 11 lunar samples pleased NASA, and this had far-ranging effects. I was asked to serve on panels that evaluate grant proposals that were submitted to the Agency. (Shortly I would be submitting proposals of my own.) Eventually I was invited to be a member of the Lunar Sample Analysis Planning Team (LSAPT, “Less-apt”), a considerable honor (Figs. 38-39). Among other things, that committee read and pronounced on the requests for lunar sample material by scientists who NASA had approved for its study.

LSAPT met in a capacious oversized trailer of the sort NASA used to house its b-level activities (Fig. 38). There we talked of serious sample-allocation matters, but at one point my LSAPT colleagues thought I should design a “Great Seal Of LSAPT.” The result, drawn with a Sharpie on a large pad on a stand meant for presentations and discussions, is shown in Fig. 40. Too much symbolism in this image to be explained, but note in particular the two winged babies (“putti”) hovering over the main characters. These I intended to represent Paul Gast and Gerald Wasserburg, members of the Lunar Science Staff. People told Jerry afterwards they “never dreamed he had such a cute ass.” Jerry later traded me “a bottle of good wine” to me for the artwork.