Micro amount of moon dust auctioned for 450,000 euros – Wel.nl

Five tubes with a small amount of moon dust have been auctioned off in the United States for 450,000 euros. As NASA policy prohibits, lunar products have not been sold before. But it happened because of human mistakes.

During a 1969 Apollo 11 mission, Neil Armstrong took the moon particles in a bag. The astronauts collected a half kilo sample to confirm. After that, more than twenty kilos were scooped up and taken away.

All of the lunar dust was inspected and stored by NASA, but an empty bag containing the emergency model sold for less than a thousand dollars in the 1970s. It was not until 2015 that the buyer realized that there were traces of moon dust in the stitches of the bag.

After the investigation, NASA confirmed this, and the space company sued the buyer. Moon dust should be in the hands of the state as a national tradition, they said. However, the judge ruled in favor of the buyer, and he sold the empty bag in 2017 for 1.5 million euros.

Now the moon dust also went under the hammer. A small amount of moon dust sold for about 450,000 euros.