Moon-rock bag that brought first-ever lunar samples to our planet might be worth $4m

When Neil Armstrong uttered his famous words on July 20, 1969 – “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” – he was the first human ever to set foot on the moon. He radioed his colleague, Buzz Aldrin, describing what he saw: “The surface is fine and powdery. I can kick it up loosely with my toe”.

During their brief sojourn on the moon, Armstrong and Aldrin collected samples of the dust and rocks that covered a region called the Sea of Tranquillity, according to News Week.

On the 48th anniversary of the event, Sotheby’s will auction off a bag that contains the first lunar samples Armstrong ever collected and brought back to Earth. The “Contingency Lunar Sample Return Decontamination Bag” appeared on the Apollo 11 stowage list and still contains traces of dust and rock. The July sale will be the first legal one of an artefact of this magnitude from the Apollo 11 mission, as Jim Hull, head of exhibits and artefacts at NASA, told Reuters. It is expected to fetch somewhere between $2 million and $4 million.

“This seemingly modest bag was part of mankind’s greatest journey and played a crucial role in the single most important scientific task of the Apollo 11 mission—to bring back the very first sample of lunar material ever collected,” Cassandra Hatton, vice president and senior specialist in charge of the Sotheby’s sale, said in a statement. “It is one thing to read about going to the moon; it is quite another to hold in one’s hands an object that was actually there, and that still carries traces of that faraway place.”

This was the exchange between Armstrong and Command Module Pilot Michael Collins regarding the bag that was captured by the mission’s onboard voice recordings:

“Armstrong: If you want to have a look at what the moon looks like, you can open that up and look. Don’t open the bag though.
Collins: What was that bag?
Armstrong: Contingency sample.
Collins: Rock?
Armstrong: Yes, there’s some rocks in it too…”

The bag’s history is filled with drama. The government had seized the bag as part of a criminal case against Max Ary, the former director of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center. He was convicted of stealing and selling space artefacts from the museum, sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay restitution.

There was also some confusion that resulted in the bag’s historical significance being missed. Nancy Lee Carson, a corporate attorney and a space collector, purchased it for $995 at an auction in February 2015. She then sent it to NASA to have it tested for authenticity. The space agency decided not to return it, which led to a legal battle.

In December 2016, a judge ruled that Carson is “entitled to possession of the bag.” In February, a federal judge ordered the Johnson Space Center to return it to Carlson, who is set to auction it off in July. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to charities, such as the Immune Deficiency Foundation and the Bay Cliff Health Camp Children’s Therapy and Wellness Center.