You can now buy moon dust from NASA’s Apollo 11 mission for $400,000 but it hides a disgusting secret
Moon dust collected in 1969 by Apollo 11 astronauts has just gone up for auction.
The moon dust is from Neil Armstong’s famous NASA mission, which made him the first human to stand on the lunar surface.
The sample may sound exciting but it holds a rather disgusting space secret.
If you’re not a fan of cockroaches then you may see the moon dust differently as it was once eaten by the creatures.
This was part of an experiment to see if the lunar dust had a negative impact on them.
During the first mission to the moon, scientists were worried that the astronauts would encounter position substances or bring contamination back to Earth.
The three cockroaches that ate the lunar dust were then killed and dissected.
Scientists removed the dust from their stomachs and found no evidence to suggest that the sample was toxic.
RR Auction is now selling the moon dust as part of its “Remarkable Rarities” auction.
Bidding started this week on May 26 and will continue until June 23 so there’s plenty of time to put a bid in.
However, the starting bid was $10,000 (£7,918) and the auction experts think the moon sample will eventually sell for $400,000 (£317,000).
Bobby Livingston, RR Auction executive vice president, told collectSPACE: “Whenever we represent something from Apollo 11 it is obviously thrilling because it is the most important mission, but when you get something like cockroaches that were fed lunar material, it just shows how diverse the Apollo program was.
He added: “For any of us who were 12 or 13 years old and had a science class, this is not at all ‘icky.’ This is incredible.”
The lucky buyers will get the tiny moon dust sample and the carcasses of the three roaches that ate it.
This story originally appeared on The Sun and has been reproduced here with permission.
