[Rockhounds] Particles of Apollo 11 moon dust for sale at auction

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Samples of moon dust collected by Neil Armstrong during the historic Apollo
11 mission <https://www.nbcnews.com/space/apollo-11-moon-landing> in 1969
will go up for auction Wednesday in New York City.

The auction item, which includes five samples of lunar dust, is a rare
piece of space history and could be worth up to $1.2 million, according to
Bonhams, the auction house handling the sale. The dust samples had a wild
and controversial journey to sale and will be the only known samples of
lunar dust sold legally after being authenticated by NASA.

"There's never been a verified Apollo lunar sample offered at auction, so
we're just so pleased and honored to offer this," said Adam Stackhouse, a
specialist at Bonhams who is overseeing its Space History sale.

The particles for sale can be found in a blue plastic container on five
aluminum disks, each topped with a small piece of carbon tape that was used
to retrieve moon dust from a collection bag.On July 21, 1969, after Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on the moon,
Armstrong gathered a small "contingency sample" of lunar dust before
carrying out the rest of his planned activities on the lunar surface, according
to NASA protocols
<https://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/catalogs/apollo11/03samplecollectingtoolsandcontainers.pdf>.
The idea was that if the mission needed to be cut short for any reason,
Armstrong and Aldrin would be able to return to Earth with the contingency
sample in tow.
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/particles-apollo-11-moon-dust-sale-auction-rcna24051