A small part of the lunar dust samples brought back to earth by Apollo 11 astronaut Armstrong in 1969 have been auctioned off after being "digested" by cockroaches more than 50 years ago. The starting price is $10000. On the official website of auction house RR auction, there are several dead cockroaches and lunar dust taken from cockroaches.
The auction house said that the material taken from the abdomen of Blattella germanica had changed from lunar dust to cockroach chyme. These collections are from the late entomologist Dr. marionbrooks of the University of Sao Paulo.
In 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts brought back about 47.5 pounds of lunar rock to earth. These rocks were isolated in a vacuum chamber for several weeks, and scientists studying invertebrates then received about 4.5 pounds (about 2 kg) and ground into small particles for studying the reactions of insects and aquatic organisms exposed to lunar rocks and dust.
In fact, before the first human mission to the moon, scientists were not completely sure what astronauts would encounter. For example, although most biologists are absolutely certain that there is no indigenous life on the moon, they cannot completely rule out that astronauts will not bring back germs that may threaten life on earth. So the astronauts, the spacecraft and everything they brought back were quarantined for 21 days.
The lunar reception Laboratory (LRL) is a special facility built by NASA to isolate astronauts and lunar materials from the outside world. The experiment was carried out in the lunar receiving laboratory. Insects were ingested by mixing lunar particles with food, and aquatic species were contacted in a water tank. None of the individuals who died in the experiment died from exposure to lunar dust.
But that is not enough. NASA hired marionbrooks to study cockroaches that had eaten lunar soil. At that time, NASA wanted to fully understand any adverse effects that might be caused by this alien material. The bodies were later transferred to the University of Sao Paulo for Brooks to do further research.
The lunar soil Brooks received was stored in 8 cockroaches. One group of cockroaches in her study was fed the same amount of lunar soil and common food, while the other group was fed with sterilized lunar soil. Brooks dissected cockroaches, prepared tissue sections, and studied them with a microscope to find evidence of pathological conditions caused by ingestion of extraterrestrial substances.
But she found no evidence of disease or pathogen, and also observed that the moon particles did not damage the stomach cells of cockroaches. "I found no evidence of infectious agents." Brooks said in an interview that year that there was no sign that the lunar soil was toxic or dangerous to cockroaches.
Brooks and other researchers published Apollo 11: exposure of lower animals to lunar material in the journal Science on july31,1970, and described their findings. 10 kinds of lower animals were exposed to lunar materials for 28 days, and no pathological effects caused by exposure to lunar materials were found.
Brooks put a tissue section, news clippings and postcards covering her research together and hung them on the wall as a souvenir. In the middle are the lunar sample particles extracted from biological experiments and three Blattella germanica. Brooks died in 2007. Three years later, the souvenir was auctioned off with 66 slides for $10000.
The starting price of this RR auction is $10000. At present, the bid is $11000. RR auction is estimated to be over $400000. The substance in the bottle is about 40 mg. Bidders' first bids must be submitted before 6:00 p.m. EDT on June 23.
In addition to the auction of this lunar dust sample, the three small gravels with a total weight of about 0.2g brought back from the moon by the Soviet "moon 16" probe in 1970 were sold at Sotheby's auction house for us $855000 in 2018.
In April this year, a part of the lunar dust particles brought back by Armstrong from the moon in 1969 was finally auctioned off for $504375, which is also the only lunar dust sample that NASA identified as a real legal sale.