Ireland lunar sample displays Ireland lunar sample displays The Ireland lunar sample displays are two commemorative plaques consisting of small fragments of moon rock brought back to earth by the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 lunar missions and given to the people of Ireland by United States President Richard Nixon as goodwill gifts. The Apollo 11 lunar sample display commemorative podium style plaque given to Ireland, once housed at the Dunsink Observatory in Dublin, consisted of four moon rock fragments – rice-size particle specimens that were collected by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969 – and a small flag that
Buzz Aldrin while Command Module Pilot Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit. A Presbyterian elder, Aldrin became the first person to hold a religious ceremony on the Moon when he privately took communion. Upon leaving NASA in 1971, he became Commandant of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School. He retired from the Air Force in 1972, after 21 years of service. His autobiographies "Return to Earth," (1973) and "Magnificent Desolation" (2009), recount his struggles with clinical depression and alcoholism in the years after leaving NASA. He continued to advocate for space exploration, particularly a manned mission to Mars, and developed the