The remains that were collected in the Apollo mission, the first time that human beings stepped on the Moon, have been auctioned for 1.8 million dollars . The bag, which was unsorted for years in a box at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, was acquired by a person who bid over the phone and did not want to be publicly identified.
The auction took place in New York on the 48th anniversary of the first moon landing.
Remains of the Moon
In the aforementioned auction there was also a bid for other objects from the Apollo mission . Like the Apollo 13 flight plan written down by its crew, which sold for $ 275,000; a spacesuit worn by American astronaut Gus Grissom, sold for $ 43,750, and a famous image of Buzz Aldrin from Apollo 11 on the Moon taken by Neil Armstrong, bought for $ 35,000.
The object that acquired the most value in the auction, however, was this bag where the remains of the Moon were kept. It measures 30×22 centimeters and has had a curious journey: after disappearing from the space center, it was found in the garage of the manager of a museum in Kansas, Max Ary , who was convicted of its robbery in 2014.
The bag’s adventure didn’t end there: it was seized by authorities and put up for auction three times without success, until Chicago attorney Nancy Lee Carlson bought it in 2015 for $ 995. Carlson sent the bag to NASA for authentication, and when tests revealed it was the one Armstrong used and had traces of moondust, the space agency decided to keep it. Carlson sued NASA, got it back, and eventually put it up for auction.