Moon dust bag sold for $1.8m

[Homer J Simpson]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40677650

[xrunner]

I'm thinking (I know you all just smelled smoke) if simple Moon dust is worth that much, let's get back up there and get more! 

[Mattjd]

I'm thinking (I know you all just smelled smoke) if simple Moon dust is worth that much, let's get back up there and get more! 

If only supply and demand worked that easily!

[nctnico]

BTW it is a nice example on how NASA tends to lose important stuff.

[bsudbrink]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that, if there were piles of 999fine gold bars sitting on the surface of the moon, free for the taking, you would lose money bringing them back to earth.

[KL27x]

As long as the other 0.001% is moon dust, you will be fine. Just gotta refine it and get rid of the gold contamination.

[Electro Detective]

There's still 'one born every minute' it seems,

parting with $1.8m

for useless non-coke dust   

[SeanB]

Value is solely in the mind. A pile of gold is absolutely useless in some cases.

[JPortici]

There's still 'one born every minute' it seems,

parting with $1.8m

for useless non-coke dust   

i would safely bet that someone somewhere called a variety of coke "moon dust"

[Electro Detective]

Value is solely in the mind. A pile of gold is absolutely useless in some cases.

Beg to differ Sir, one will always get good mileage from a bag of gold on Earth in any period,

than a bag of moon dust that even the local pawn or jeweller shop can't verify the validity of, much less what it's worth on the money market

Gold has been king for thousands of years, what will moon dust be worth in a few decades?  What can you use it for if it's value bites the dust? 

Only rich showoffs will roll with it and sell it amongst themselves.  Upper level 'audiophool' types 

[SeanB]

Value is solely in the mind. A pile of gold is absolutely useless in some cases.

Beg to differ Sir, one will always get good mileage from a bag of gold on Earth in any period,

than a bag of moon dust that even the local pawn or jeweller shop can't verify the validity of, much less what it's worth on the money market

Gold has been king for thousands of years, what will moon dust be worth in a few decades?  What can you use it for if it's value bites the dust? 

Only rich showoffs will roll with it and sell it amongst themselves.  Upper level 'audiophool' types 

Still will not buy you an extra life when yours is up, or keep you from drowning.

[Kjelt]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that, if there were piles of 999fine gold bars sitting on the surface of the moon, free for the taking, you would lose money bringing them back to earth.

Yeah if you sent a huge rocket for each time, but ofcourse you would build a huge catapult or something else able to launch the gold bars in the direction of earth purely on mechanical power.
You need a device to catch the launched bars on earth end and a way to transport them back to earth, the latter being the most challenging.
However overfloading the gold market with so much gold the prices will drop significantly 

[Electro Detective]

However overfloading the gold market with so much gold the prices will drop significantly 

The gold hoarders won't let that happen,
they'll freeze funds on space scavenging/mining
and blow out the stock market/s 
...again       

[BravoV]

Wonder if there is any chance that the buyer is actually people from one of the other non US country's aerospace agency ?

Cause $ 1.8m is nothing when it comes to govt backed aerospace organization. 

[Electro Detective]

It may even be a bag of coke or ice    who would ever suspect or question it ?   

Perhaps moon dust is better gear,
and the aerospace industry staff get into it, among other activities in the photocopy room
at the annual Christmas breakup party   

 

[EEVblog]

Value is solely in the mind. A pile of gold is absolutely useless in some cases.

Beg to differ Sir, one will always get good mileage from a bag of gold on Earth in any period,
than a bag of moon dust that even the local pawn or jeweller shop can't verify the validity of, much less what it's worth on the money market

Wrong.
This item has what's called provenance in the collecting world. i.e. it has a verified history proving it is genuine.
This bag will very likely appreciate in value with time, likely better than gold.
It's only like the personal item used by the most famous human in history in the most famous event in human history.

[Electro Detective]

Value is solely in the mind. A pile of gold is absolutely useless in some cases.

Beg to differ Sir, one will always get good mileage from a bag of gold on Earth in any period,
than a bag of moon dust that even the local pawn or jeweller shop can't verify the validity of, much less what it's worth on the money market

Wrong.
This item has what's called provenance in the collecting world. i.e. it has a verified history proving it is genuine.
This bag will very likely appreciate in value with time, likely better than gold.
It's only like the personal item used by the most famous human in history in the most famous event in human history.

I can see your point, and agree with it as a generalization, BUT...

A bag of gold is a bag of gold, and it won't ever change in value unless market forces dictate differently,
history tells us gold is still THE standard,
the hoarders controlling supply and release won't let that privilege go, EVER 

Moon dust on the other hand has a high asset risk factor
and it's value can be trashed overnight if, for debate sake
the conspiracy theorists get the upper hand with their proof (be it true or awesome BS)  
a competing aerospace giant brings back tons of it in the future
or people lose interest in the novelty, or just too dumbed down to pay attention to the significance

You could argue that this current bag of moon dust was an original, but how would you control the forces of fraud down the track,
with 10 identical bags randomly appearing on the auction circuit? 

I'll take the bag of gold thank you very much,
I reckon I could get some good cash from the PCB industry any time,
and a lot of ladies would roll my way on that too,
to suit their decorative habits     

[KL27x]

If you can predict the future, you will choose the right one. And either one may beat the other, depending on when you cash it in. Me, I'd like some Netflix stock from 2010.

If someone offers me 1.8 million dollars worth of dog biscuits, I'll take it.

The guy had 1.8 million to spend on moon dust. I think he won, already.

and a lot of ladies would roll my way on that too,
to suit their decorative habits     

This guy is probably well beyond that, by now. Gold-digging ladies lose their luster after awhile. Then it's on to buying diplomatic immunity so you can indulge in some real high class fetishes.

[R_Gtx]

The 1.8 M$ includes the Buyers Premium, the hammer price being 1.5 M$, somewhat below the pre-auction estimate of 2-4 M$.
Perhaps of greater interest to users of this forum, was the sale of a Space Shuttle Orbiter Computer Processor, or for any battery aficionados, a Apollo Lunar Module (LM) Pyrotechnic Battery.

For those interested, a high quality pdf (~88Mb) of the catalogue "Space Exploration" is still available for download from Sotheby,s.

[Zero999]

Value is solely in the mind. A pile of gold is absolutely useless in some cases.

Beg to differ Sir, one will always get good mileage from a bag of gold on Earth in any period,
than a bag of moon dust that even the local pawn or jeweller shop can't verify the validity of, much less what it's worth on the money market

Wrong.
This item has what's called provenance in the collecting world. i.e. it has a verified history proving it is genuine.
This bag will very likely appreciate in value with time, likely better than gold.
It's only like the personal item used by the most famous human in history in the most famous event in human history.

I can see your point, and agree with it as a generalization, BUT...

A bag of gold is a bag of gold, and it won't ever change in value unless market forces dictate differently,
history tells us gold is still THE standard,
the hoarders controlling supply and release won't let that privilege go, EVER 

Moon dust on the other hand has a high asset risk factor
and it's value can be trashed overnight if, for debate sake
the conspiracy theorists get the upper hand with their proof (be it true or awesome BS)  
a competing aerospace giant brings back tons of it in the future
or people lose interest in the novelty, or just too dumbed down to pay attention to the significance

You could argue that this current bag of moon dust was an original, but how would you control the forces of fraud down the track,
with 10 identical bags randomly appearing on the auction circuit? 

I'll take the bag of gold thank you very much,
I reckon I could get some good cash from the PCB industry any time,
and a lot of ladies would roll my way on that too,
to suit their decorative habits     

You never know what will happen in the future. What happens if someone discovers a cheap way of making gold from lower value metals, using a novel nuclear reactor design? Gold prices will plummet but the moon dust bag will retain its value.

And don't say that this will never happen. It's physically possible, just infeasible using today's technology.

[Kjelt]

Yeah find King Midas tomb
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midas

[Electro Detective]

Yeah find King Midas tomb
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midas

Waste of time, the original 'tomb raiders' cleaned it out AGES ago