The story of lunar dust and cockroaches begins after the return to Earth of the astronauts who traveled to the Moon in 1969: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. As part of the Apollo 11 mission, Armstrong and Aldrin collected some 21.3 kilograms of moon rock, two of which were sent to scientists at the University of Minnesota (UM) Lunar Receiving Laboratory, where researchers analyzed how exposure to dust affected insects, aquatic life and microbes, according to the auction announcement. The researchers fed moondust to cockroaches to find out if the moon rock could contain any pathogens that could endanger life on Earth.
NASA sent a letter to the Boston-based auction house RR Auction on June 15, stating that the samples still belonged to the federal government . The letter stated that “all Apollo samples, as set forth in this collection of articles, belong to NASA and no person, university, or other entity has ever been given permission to preserve them after analysis, destruction, or otherwise.” use for any purpose, especially for individual sale or display”.
The lot that was intended to be auctioned was advertised as “a unique Apollo rarity” . With it, the auction house expected to pocket about $400,000. The samples included a jar of about 40 milligrams of moondust, the remains of three cockroaches, and dozens of microscope slides.
NASA has also asked RR Auction by letter to stop accepting bids on the lot and to “stop facilitating the sale of any and all items containing the Apollo 11 Lunar Soil Experiment.”
Minnesota Science magazine published an article in 1970 stating that “some animals were inoculated with dust, others received portions mixed with their food or water, and still others walked or crawled through the dust spread at the bottom of their containers” . He also reported that none of these animals were harmed as a result of exposure to moondust.
The powder sample up for auction was originally under the supervision of Marion Brooks, a UM entomologist who fed it to cockroaches. According to an article published in the October 6, 1969 Minneapolis Tribune (now the Star Tribune ) and reproduced in the RR Auction listing, Brooks fed the cockroaches a “half diet and half normal food mixed with an equal amount of charcoal-gray lunar soil”.
However, instead of returning the samples to NASA at the end of his research, Brooks had them on display at his home, and his daughter sold them several years after her mother’s death in 2007.
As The Washington Post reports, the person who has put the lot up for auction has done so anonymously. The auction house’s attorney, Mark Zaid, told the American newspaper that RR Auction is working with NASA regarding the space agency’s request. “We have worked with NASA before and have always cooperated with the federal government when they claim ownership of items,” Zaid said. “At the end of the day, we want to act properly and legally.”
