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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 hope that in a few years the guy who buys this will be kicking himself for wasting money on a rock, instead of saving for a trip to the moon which could be practical in 10 years.
Celebrities are like ads, if we all ignore them, they'll just go away.
Why didn't they auction it on eBay? I mean, there are competitors to eBay now?
OK, I'm joking. But really I do wonder what their reasons were.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
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.
They also disallowed auctions of all WTC memorabilia (even that ashtray you really bought there in 1982) shortly after 9/11, and auctions of anything even claiming to be Shuttle Columbia debris before most of it hit the ground.
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
Face it, the moon is a dump. It's a boring, dried up wasteland, and the only reason anybody ever comes here is for the tacky little amusement park.
You mean like France and EuroDisney?
Trolling is a art,
you'll have lots of rocks to sell.
Can you even imagine a beowulf cluster of...
Why do break in's always have Nixon's name somewhere in the paragraph?
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
This makes the moon rock the most expensive paper weight ever!
Moon rocks do have magical properties, have you never seen Halloween 3
They better have been careful not to have taken that piece off of my land. I've got mineral rights, you know.
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
if you can sell me some jupiter rock.
When anger rises, think of the consequences.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)
I predict that within 10 years Wal-Mart will carry moon rocks imported from the Chinese, who will have a mine on the moon by then and bring rock back by the ton. Get ready for "pet moon rocks" and "moon mood rings" on the shopping channel too.
I think I have some Moon rocks lodged in between the treads of my hiking boots... err I mean Lunar Hiking Boots.
::.. check out some Cell Phone Reviews
HA! I can beat that offer, on E-bay I'm selling 1-acre lots on the moon starting at $20,000. Perfect for your next home building project. Building your next home on the moon has many perks: 1. No Pollution - at least not yet 2. No pollen - great for people with allergies 3. Spectacular views of the planet Earth with ocean front views. Mission to the moon, taxes, rocket fuel, and NASA clearence fee, building permit, and contractors to build you house, sold seperatly. Buy now and get 1000 free hours of AOL via satelite to planet Earth.
A few specks of moondust that would otherwise be sitting in a cupboard/safe somewhere.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
I know someone (an astrophysicist) who has diamonds from outside the solar system (the result of dissolving a piece of meteorite)... Doesn't look like much though (they're so small it's just dust, stored in a liquid).
I wonder if it could also reach such high prices. (When I looked at it I didn't think it could be worth anything, if only because there's no way you can tell it's from there)
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.
Yes, for we are swimming in moon specks.
It's got a cool/unique aspect to it that's going to make it sell for a lot.
Remember those yahoos who stole and tried to sell a full-fledged moon rock?
The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
Why not fly the shuttle to the moon and fill her up?
It's well capable and has the necessary landing ability.
They could bring back 20 tons of paydirt and solve the national debt!!
I'm a geek. I haven't thrown out anything.
It's not a desk, it's a desk set: A little plaque and model.
It's not made of moon rock, it's got a resin model of a moon rock on it with TINY FLECKS from the box the rocks were brought back in attached to it.
lysergically yours
I hope Major Nelson got one too.
Does it have "The Moon" written all the way through?
To be fair, I think it would be fair to pay with 50 "presumable" $1000 bills encased in a big blob of resin shaped like a sucker.
Never at a loss for words... because of the voices.
Damn! Foiled again. :)
Who needs rocks.. I want my own mooninite ATHF They can jump WAY higher then us, smoke when they shoot the bird.... and have the powerful QUAD-LASER... much cooler than some stupid rocks.
Wouldnt you like to be a pepper too?
as long as they dont sell pieces of ur-anus .. cus i would not want any of tht on my desk
Or cheese.
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
Especially since his user name is 'trotski'. :-)
For those who do not want to register for NYT
Here ya go
Marge, get me your address book, 4 beers, and my conversation hat.
I'm disappointed in you, Taco. How could you miss an opportunity to run "the own-a-piece-of-the-rock dept."?
So, sell now before the Chinese bring the stuff back in bulk and kill the market.
See the thread involving DeBeers and artificially created diamond shortages.
The US might do better to auction off a few small pieces to the highest bidders, if they were going to go that route for fundraising.
What's the difference? In a few year's we will look back at the "newest game or software" and wonder why the hell we made that. (read: It's only 3D??)Diamonds etc are a rarity, thus due to supply and demand they are assigned a large value. Software is so incredibly accessible it is given a lower value (relatively). I'll agree that 50K is ridiculous for a desk, but not everyone has a piece of the moon now do they? It's simple economics. when Supply ) Demand prices go down. its that simple
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember reading where PRIVATE ownership of Moon rocks was Illegial? Searching Google, I can't find an exact statue to cite, just a bunch of references stating its illegial for me as a private citizen of the US to own a moon rock?? no wonder I never got that one I wanted for christmas :(
It's illegal to sell NASA moon rocks brougth back from the Apollo missions. However, Lunar Meteorites are a different story. I have a 9mg piece of DAG 400 and there are others available on the market as well. Mars rock is also available, I have a 32mg piece of DAG 476 and a speck of Zagami. But beware who you buy your specimen(s) from. Learn who the legit dealers are. Do your homework first.
Whats the point of buying a small chunk of the moon if you cant visit it? If you buy the land, then you will have to be trained as an astronaut and then you will have to travel the distance to get there. This costs extra money in itself.
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begin Indiana Jones mode "It belongs in a museum" end Indinana Jones mode
doing some further research I found this in a NASA newsletter... :))
"The OIG's investigative arm conducts criminal and regulatory investigations in which NASA is a victim. Recently, we have investigated: MOON ROCKS Finally, in an ongoing investigation we seized a desk set that allegedly contained scraps of lunar material. The set, which was owned by a dealer in rare objects, had originally been given to a retiring NASA engineerin 1970. Against NASA policy, the engineer's coworkers had worked some scraps of lunar materials into the desk." Newletter HERE strange that its being acutioned, but NASA Seems to have previously confiscated it???? I know I won't be bidding...not that I could
People have been talking about space tourism for a very long time but look at what's happened so far. Manned space travel is more or less at a standstill. Certainly there's technological potential for a lot more but it's just not happening.
...when you can be the proud owner of property on the Moon!
Trolls lurk everywhere. Mod them down.
What kind of lunatic would by a piece of dirt that from the lunar surface?
/me Pauses, and ponders fate.
Oh well at least it's not a total waste, I got a very fancy glass jar.
Man, three years ago I bought my Dad an acre of land on Io from a booth at the mall around Christmastime. It only cost me 10 bucks and it even came with a deed, although the guy printed that on-site with a shitty bubble jet.
Either way, he was also selling pieces of the moon, but owning land on our moon is like owning a cabin in Aspen - it may have been cool 30 years ago, but not anymore. Jupiter's moons are the next big thing, man.
[hmm... that post started and ended with "man"... maybe i need to get out more...]
...Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
Churchill
50 grands opening bid and I couldn't even get 50$ for my Piece of Earth auction? BAH!
Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me
Now there's a concept: software as a digital rarity. How can digital information become rare, when it can be copied perfectly for just about nothing? Maybe someone ought to mention this to the record companies one day. They'll be shocked to learn that their product has very low value without them depending on an artificial scarceness, and I'm sure they'll drop their prices right away.
Mod this guy down... he doesn't know what he is talking about. You can't sell this kind of stuff to Iraq... This kind of stuff requires licenses no matter where it goes, and those licenses ain't gonna be approved for Iraq. Don't believe me? Check out this site, or this one.
Set the wayback machine for 25 years ago or so. I remember some guy came to our elementary school and showed us moon rocks. I was impressed.
I mean, those rocks came from the freekin moon!
Good luck to the winner of that auction.
The Internet is generally stupid
eBay has an official category for meteorites, with nearly 1000 items listed.
I wonder why eBay feels it's OK to sell some things from space and not others. Is it legal to sell moon rocks, or are they all NASA's property through some sort of weird eminent domain? I can certainly understand forbidding Columbia items, that's just out of human decency, but the moon rock thing has me perplexed.
"BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
How much is the lastest game from a decade ago worth?
I recently sold a box of Sega Saturn games (CDs) on eBay. Went for about fifteen bucks.
A Good Intro to NetBS
You would think that big piece of cheese in the desk would stink by now!
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
If a few fragments of moon rock are worth this much money, I am one seriously wealthy person.
A couple of years ago someone bought me a whole acre of the moon for my birthday!
I'm doing the financial calculations now but it's making my head hurt.
Diamonds etc are a rarity, thus due to supply and demand they are assigned a large value
No, this is due to cartel manipulation.
I'd be willing to bet that little fossil rocks with Trilobytes in them are far more rare than diamonds, yet trilobyte fossils are $1.25.
This isn't supply and demand, this is market manipulation.
How can digital information become rare, when it can be copied perfectly for just about nothing?
I'd say stuff like the source for Windows 2000 would be considered rare... and very valuable.
Some digital information can be considered very rare and valuable. But that's probably not the stuff this guy is talking about.
"This desk set wants to fly!" Oh hang on, part of it already has.
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
.. of course it would stink. That's why they preserved and varnished the cheese - so you'll be okay as long as you're not planning to eat the moon-cheese.
Hey, watch it! I'll have you know that's genuine 100% official Clanger Poo.
That's freedom fries, you insensitive clod! Or have you forgotten how the French refused to help fight the evil Soup Dragon in the moon wars of 2054?
Its an EPOXY 'rock'. With maybe/possibly/probably not moon rock flecks in it from the mold! What a misleading story.
There are pieces of Apollo 11 & 12 on the front of the base though, thats kind of cool.
Nah, it's been done.
You can legally buy rocks from the moon for a buttload cheaper than $50,000 woven into plastic. Some meteorites that were collected after landing on Earth were found to have come from the moon. When a large object hits the moon, moon rocks are thrown into space and some of them land back on the Earth. This trick works for Mars, too. Here's a little piece of moon rock for under $1000, for instance.
I'd like some of that metallic hydrogen for my next casemod...
This comment does not exist.
Now if only a piece of JLo's moon were for sale...
"Has [being a kidnapped teenage girl, raped repeatedly for months] changed you?" - Katie Couric to Elizabeth Smart
'I don't know if you looked around before you left, but we've GOT rock! just laying about... oh wait Neil did you hear,.. while you were gone rock went up 3 points....no it didn't.. becuase it's just ROCK' --Eddie Izzard
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"Amid a media firestorm, a NASA special agent from the Goddard Space Flight Center seized the desk set, and non-destructive testing to determine the desk set's authenticity ensued. After much legal posturing, NASA was forced to return the desk set to Ms. Davis..."
"It's well capable and has the necessary landing ability."
Uh, stop and think for 10 seconds. The shuttle lands on Earth using wings. Wings require air. Also the shuttle needs a decent landing strip, and to take off it needs a bunch of fuel, even in the moon's low gravity.
Unfortunately TV and movies are viewed as reality by most americans, nearly every show in space treats ships like planes in space; they're streamlined, winged, and they maneuver like dogfighting planes. Watch some Babylon 5 reruns.
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
The slice of moon rock at the entrance to the Air and Space that you can touch must wear down like the steps to a medieval cathedral with all the people rubbing greasy fingerprints on it. Has that ever been replaced? And if so, who got the old bits of that germ-o-phobes worst nightmare?
You're claim about "I am not affiated with the company" would be more believeable if you weren't posting as AC.