A small amount of microscopic lunar dust sold for half a million dollars after NASA determined that the particles were part of the first lunar sample collected by Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong.
Bonhams auctioned off Apollo 11 for $ 504,375 as part of a space story sale held in New York on Wednesday (April 13th). The amount, which includes the buyer’s premium, does not match Bonham’s preliminary estimate of $ 800,000 to $ 1.2 million.
“Lot 21, shown on your screens, provides a unique opportunity to own a NASA-tested portion of the Apollo 11 contingency test,” said Ian Elling, director of Bonhams’ fine books and manuscripts, before opening the $ 220,000 bid.
The Apollo Program: How NASA sent astronauts to the moon
Elling’s hammer fell to $ 400,000 after receiving seven bids. The winning bid was not identified.
The successful sale marks the end of a complex and sometimes intricate history of moon dust since it arrived on Earth in 1969. Small samples, so small that Bonhams failed to provide a total weight and indicated their size in microns, were found in the seams. of a bag used to store the first lunar sample collected by an astronaut on the moon.
Spots of moon dust were used by a NASA curator to determine that the bag or “bag for decontamination of a container for returning unforeseen samples” flew during the Apollo 11 mission after being sold at auction to the government for confiscation in 2015 After NASA refused to give up the bag, a series of lawsuits filed by the winner of the auction led to the bag being owned by the buyer.
Another out-of-court lawsuit ended with NASA also handing over test samples after the bag was sold at auction for $ 1,812,500 in 2017.
Bonhams sold the samples when NASA handed them over, embedded in a 10-millimeter-diameter black carbon strip attached to five aluminum samples for a scanning electron microscope. An independent test, conducted at Bonmes’ request, found that four of the five cubs contained lunar dust particles corresponding to the lunar contingency sample collected by Armstrong. The fifth little one had lunar traces different from the other four, probably due to a change in testing techniques.
Apollo 11 lunar particles, as seen with a scanning electron microscope. The geological composition of the sample allowed NASA to identify the origin as the Sea of Tranquility of the Moon. (Image credit: Bonhams)
NASA usually claims that the lunar material recovered from Apollo is a national treasure and not private property. Narrow exceptions have been made for the memories preserved by the astronauts, colored with moon dust and two sets of international gifts of goodwill. Even the lunar rocks presented to astronauts as Research Ambassador awards are by name only; the samples are taken by the space agency.
An unforeseen sample of Apollo 11, which includes 492 grams (17.4 ounces) of material finer than 0.4 inches (1 centimeter) and 12 rock fragments larger than 0.4 inches, remains under NASA control. , as well as most of the 842 pounds (382 kilograms) of moon rocks, samples of core, pebbles, sand and dust that were returned to Earth by the six Apollo missions that landed on the moon.
Legal sales of man-made lunar material are rare. In 2018, Sotheby’s auctioned the only government-certified sample of loose lunar dust in private hands, three small pebbles brought by the former Soviet Union’s robotic spacecraft Luna 16 in 1970. The grains weighed a total of about 0.2 grams (0.0007 ounces), sold for $ 855,000.
The same presentation, which was originally given to the widow of Sergei Korolev, the “chief designer” of the Soviet space program, was sold by Sotheby’s in 1993 for $ 442,500. With inflation, sales for 2018 reflect an increase of about $ 87,500.
Other equipment stained with Apollo’s lunar dust and taped lunar samples have been sold, but without a certificate from NASA, making the Bonums samples unique.
The Bonhams space history sale includes a total of 22 lots, including artifacts from the launch of the world’s first satellite, Sputnik, autographs and photos of astronauts.
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