At a cost of $ 400,000 .. an auction offers a dust sample that keeps a secret for the first manned mission of the month

Space enthusiasts are looking forward to a unique sample of moon dust collected and auctioned by astronauts from the 1969 Apollo 11 mission.

This sample of moon dust is recognizable on the famous NASA mission by Neil Armstrong, the first person to stand on the surface of the moon, and that may not only be the exciting thing about this sample, but it also hides a bad secret.

This sample was part of a scientific experiment in which cockroaches were fed moon dust and pierced, along with other creatures, to observe possible pathological effects on them.

On the first mission to the Moon, scientists worried that astronauts would encounter harmful substances on the Moon’s surface or return pollution to Earth.

That is why scientists have tried to investigate the possible negative effects of moon dust.

After the crickets swallowed and melted some of the moon’s dust, the three crickets that drank the moon’s dust were killed and separated.

The scientists removed the dust from their stomachs and found no evidence that the sample was poisonous. The remains of the last insect meal are up for auction, along with the carcasses of several insects and other memorabilia from the study.

This month’s iconic specimens are being sold by RR Auctions as part of an auction called “Wonderful Rarities.”

The bidding process began on May 26 and will run until June 23, so plenty of time for bids.

The initial bid was $ 10,000 (£ 7,918) and auction experts believe the month’s sample will fetch $ 400,000 (£ 317,000) by the end of the month.

“When we represent something from Apollo 11, it’s clearly exciting because that’s the most important mission, but when you get something like moon-fed crickets, it shows how diverse it is,” he said. by Bobby Livingstone, RR Vice President of Auctions. He explained the CollectSPACE Apollo program.

Source: The New York Post