Someone just spends a lot of money for some shit room. Bonhams Auction House has wrapped up one more auction of April 1322 – this one, in particular, focusing on the history of the room, full of lots of historic and centric items (hence). This includes a piece of sputnik satellite, a photo signed by all seven astronauts seven mercury, and of course some dust moon collected from the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 NASA mission.
According to the Bonhams list, dust comes from the remnants of “contingency samples” Astronaut Niel Armstrong takes during the initial phase of the historic mission 1969. The auction is not for bags full of dust, but five disk samples taken from the original part of the bag used to hold what can be burned by Armstrong more than 50 years ago – and after NASA has emptied it.
Apart from the sample material this month became very small in the scope, (and really, only the remnants pulled from the old container with several tape), they are still a significant history and the only example of lunar dust that has been verified by NASA and can be sold legally to the public. Lot sells for $ 504,375, in this case, which includes Bonham Premium 26% buyers add sales between $ 25,000 and $ 1,000,000.
A once-in-a-lifetime purchase
In most circumstances, this sample will not be available to the public at all, but the Bonhams list enters details about why this is an exception.
The sample was initially taken and studied by NASA, but a bag that was largely empty ended in the hands of the Hutchinson curator, Kansas Space Museum. A few moments after that, the curator was found guilty of stealing and selling items from the museum collection, and the bag was confiscated by Marshals U.S. Then auctioned him to pay compensation.
After being bought at the auction, the buyer wants to verify the authenticity of the bag and send it to NASA for verification. It is indeed provided after the dust is still left in extracted and tested, but NASA refused to return the bag, claiming it still belongs to their law. Only after the bag buyer pursued litigation that a US district court judge made NASA restore bags and five of the six samples drawn for verification.
This is all to say that after several misadventures on earth, following centuries in activity in the month, this month’s dust collection is considered available for public purchases.