The photo that auction company RR Auction displayed to offer NASA’s moon dust in April 2022. Photo: AP
The space agency asked the auction house RR Astabased in Boston, to suspend the sale of some lunar dust samples collected during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, which were provided as food for cockroaches in an experiment to determine whether moon rocks contained any type of pathogen that would pose a threat to life on Earth.
The dust still belongs to the federal government, a NASA lawyer said in a letter to the auction house. sold for at least $ 400,000but they have since been removed from the auction list, RR Auction said Thursday.
“All the Apollo mission samples, as indicated in this collection of objects, belong to NASA and no person, university or other entity never received permission to keep them after its analysis, destruction or other use for any purpose, especially for private sale or display, ”the space agency said in its June 15 letter.
The glass jar with about 40 milligrams of moon dust that RR Auction wants to auction. Photo: AP
“We ask that you no longer facilitate the sale of all items included in the Apollo 11 Lunar Soil Experiment (cockroaches, slides and post-destruction test samples) to immediately suspend the tender procedurewrote NASA.
In another letter dated June 22, the agency’s attorney asked RR Auction to work with the current owner of the material to return it to the federal government.
The Apollo 11 mission brought more than 21.3 kilograms of moon rocks to the earth. Some of them were fed to insects, fish and other small creatures. to see if he killed them.
The three cockroaches dissected in 1969 are now part of a NASA-led legal offering. Photo: AP
The cockroaches fed with moon dust were brought to the University of Minnesota, where entomologist Marion Brooks dissected them and studied them.
“I have not found evidence of infectious agents”Brooks told the Minneapolis Tribune in an article published in October 1969. He found no evidence that the lunar material was toxic or caused other adverse effects on insects, according to the text.
But the moon dust and the cockroaches were never returned to NASA, and instead were put on display at the Brooks’ home. She died in 2007 and her daughter sold them in 2010. They are now for sale by a consignor whose name was not disclosed by RR Auction.
Collecting materials during the last Apollo mission. Photo: Nasa.
The auction house has the lot for now, but in the end it’s up to the consignor come to some sort of deal with NASAsaid Mark Zaid, lawyer for RR Auction.
“We have worked with NASA before and we have always worked with the federal government when they claim to own things, “Zaid said.” Ultimately, we want to act fairly and legally. “
Source: Clarin
