The lunar dust collected in 1969 by the astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission was put up for auction. The lot, which was collected by the first person to set foot on the surface of the Moon, experts estimate at 400 thousand dollars. It may sound exciting, but it holds a pretty disgusting cosmic secret.
If you are not a fan of cockroaches, then you will look at this expensive moon dust in a completely different way, since it has been inside these insects. The moon dust put up for auction was used in a rather disgusting experiment. Cockroaches were forced to eat lunar regolith to find out how it would affect living beings. Then three cockroaches were killed and dissected to extract moon dust from their stomachs.
During the first mission to the Moon, scientists feared that astronauts would encounter life-threatening substances or bring infection back to Earth. But the fears were in vain. No evidence was found in the samples that the dust is toxic.
Cockroaches and the #Apollo11 moon dust they were fed now up for auction: https://t.co/QHBuWPioO0 #moonbugs pic.twitter.com/fpWWADyUTr
— collectSPACE (@collectSPACE) May 26, 2022
RR Auction is currently selling moon dust as part of its “Remarkable Rarities” auction. The auction started this week on May 26 and will last until June 23, so you will have enough time to apply.
The starting price of the lot weighing 1 gram was 10 thousand dollars. Auction experts believe that a sample of the Moon will eventually be sold for 400 thousand dollars.
Earlier, the iconic photos of Armstrong and Aldrin from Apollo 11 were 100% sold.
According to Сollectspace
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