NASA: Give Us Back Our Moon Dust and Cockroaches

NASA has asked an auction company to stop the sale of moon dust collected during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission

Moon dust had been fed to cockroaches during an experiment to check if the lunar rock contained any kind of pathogen that posed a threat to terrestrial life.

The material from the auction included a vial of 40 mg of moon dust and three cockroach carcasses.

The Auction Company named RR Auction expected to sell them for atleast 40,000$

“All Apollo samples, as stipulated in this collection of items, belong to NASA and no person, university, or other entity has ever been given permission to keep them after analysis, destruction, or other use for any purpose, especially for sale or individual display,” said NASA

The Apollo 11 mission brought more than 47 pounds (21.3 kilograms) of lunar rock back to Earth. Some was fed to insects, fish and other small creatures to see if it would kill them.

The cockroaches that were fed moon dust were brought to the University of Minnesota where entomologist Marion Brooks dissected and studied them.

Brooks died in 2007, but the moon rock samples were never returned back to NASA. Her daughter sold them in 2010, and now some anonymous is selling it through RR Auction.

This uncrewed mission will send the Orion capsule around the moon. It would be followed by a crewed trip around the moon, Artemis II, and then landing the first woman and person of color on the moon with Artemis III.

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