NASA halted the auction house from auctioning lunar dust and 3 German cockroaches and demanded their return.
Boston-based RR Auction has been auctioning three German cockroach carcasses and about 40 milligrams of lunar dust since May 25, but has now been halted by NASA. The lunar dust was collected during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 and subsequently used for experiments, feeding cockroaches to study whether lunar rocks contained any pathogens that could threaten life on Earth.
NASA lawyers said in a letter that all of the material in the experiment belonged to the federal government.
According to the Associated Press, NASA said in a June 15 letter that "according to regulations, all Apollo samples belong to NASA." No person, university or other entity is allowed to retain them after analysis, destruction or use for any purpose, in particular for sale or personal display. ”
The German cockroach carcasses and lunar dust previously auctioned off on the RR Auction website came from Dr. Marion Brooks, a late entomologist at the University of São Paulo.
In 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts brought back to Earth about 47.5 pounds (about 21.5 kilograms) of lunar rock. The rocks were isolated in a vacuum chamber for several weeks, and scientists studying invertebrates then received about 4.5 pounds (about 2 kilograms), ground into small particles and used to study reactions such as insects and aquatic organisms exposed to lunar rocks and dust.
Lunar particles are mixed with food for insects to ingest, and aquatic species are exposed through tanks. None of the individuals who died in the experiment died as a result of exposure to lunar dust.
But that's not enough. NASA hired entomologist Marion Brooks to study cockroaches that have eaten lunar soil. At the time, NASA wanted a full picture of any adverse effects this extraterrestrial material could cause. The cockroach carcasses were later transferred to the University of São Paulo for Brooks to do further research.
The lunar soil brooks received was preserved in the bodies of 8 cockroaches. One group of cockroaches she studied fed the same amount of lunar soil and common food, and the other group fed detoxified lunar soil. Brooks dissected cockroaches, prepared tissue sections, studied them with a microscope, and looked for evidence of pathological conditions caused by ingestion of extraterrestrial material.
But she found no evidence of the disease or pathogen, and also observed that lunar particles did not damage the cockroach's stomach cells. Brooks and other researchers published Apollo 11: Exposure of Lower Animals to Lunar Material in the July 31, 1970 issue of the journal Science, laying out their findings, in which 10 lower organisms were exposed to lunar material for 28 days and found no pathological effects from exposure to lunar material.
Brooks put together a slice of tissue, news clippings, postcards, etc. covering her research and hung it on the wall as a souvenir. In the center are lunar sample particles taken from biological experiments and three German cockroaches. Brooks died in 2007. Three years later, the souvenir was also auctioned off.
The auction at RR Auction is estimated at more than $400,000, but lunar dust and 3 cockroach carcasses have been removed from the auction area. According to Business Insider, the auction has been suspended, though the space materials have not been returned to NASA. In a letter dated June 22, NASA attorneys asked RR Auction to work with its current owners to return the materials.
(The Paper)