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Piece of the Moon for Sale
Symon Gold writes "A desk set purportedly containing a piece of moon rock is up for auction at Lelands.com. Listing here. The New York Times (free registration required) has a story about the piece--a retirement gift given to Joe Healy, an engineer at NASA's Lunar Receiving Laboratory who worked on the Apollo missions and who died a decade ago. The auction runs until 9 p.m. on December 4th with an opening bid of $50,000."
I think it will be overpriced. I believe the day is comming when we will all be able to take tours of the moon and mars. I believe the space program is most important for all people. What is out there in space? Are we alone? How did the universe form? Are our physics and math in a vacum of how they work on earth, like a lillypop in a lake? These are all valid questions about our exsistance. Sure, let the rich people pave the way by purchasing a novelty or trinket at an expensive price. Hopefully, these kinds of sales will spark interest in space exploration, and everyone will benifit.
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
The american public payed millions of dollars of taxes to send a man to the moon and bring back moon rocks. Therefore, I find it strange and wrong that moon rocks can be in private hands.
Everybody paid to bring the rocks here, and therefore these rocks should belong to all American people, not to private owners.
"Entropy is the bad-guy, and he is everywhere"
1. take some dirt from your backyard.
2. put it in a fancy glass thingy.
3. sell it.
4. PROFIT!!!!!
this particular piece may be authentic but i'm pretty sure that somebody has done the 1.2.3.4 thing above for moonrocks. i mean, if there's something thats worthless as it is but worth something because it is there are people who will try to cheat out some of that cash going around. i mean at one point there was something like many tons of the cross that jesus carries in bible circulating around collectors, if somebody doesn't go to moon soon enough there will be such a situation in time with moonrocks as well(and probably will be anyways for the "ah but this is from the first mission" rocks).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
If this guy has over 50k to blow on a rock, he will have the money to go to the moon too. I would bet money he is an active supporter of space programs and exploration. We need more people like him.
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
DeBeers claims that a "natural" diamond is worth much, much more than a visually indistinguishable and chemically identical diamond made in the lab last Tuesday. It is priceless simply because it came from deep inside the earth, formed by intense heat and pressure over millions of years.
Similarly, a few tiny chunks of the moon are worth $50,000 while a chemically identical chunk of rock from Colorado (olivine, with traces of ilmenite and iron oxides) is basically worthless (maybe $5/ton if you bought itin bulk).It's all about the brand, baby. Symbolism sells.
It is illegal to sell moon rocks, but not a desk that has a moon rock in it.
Kind of like selling WMD to Iraq. You can't really sell finished nukes, bioweapons, or chemical agents, but you CAN sell all the ingredients as long as you include a statement like "don't mix 10 parts of XYZ to 3 parts ABC because that would make Sarin, and never, ever add water to the Anthrax spores".
Why this human obsession with stuff from the ground? I'm more into digital rarities, like the newest game or software. That's what I value... not dirt, or minerals. But to each, their own, I guess, eh?
How much is the lastest game from a decade ago worth? How much is a diamond or a pound of gold from a decade ago worth?
Get it now?
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Modded funny? This is true. Though in China itself they'll probably be sold in apothecaries as an aphrodisiac. "Forget Viagra, nothing work better than real moon dust".