--- title: Moon Dust and Space Items Are Worth Millions. Here's Why description: An auction of space-exploration artifacts is predicted to draw big money, even if many of the items look no more glamorous than garage junk. canonical: https://time.com/4857517/space-exploration-artifacts/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-14T16:02:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T05:49:48.000Z article:section: History og:title: Space Exploration Artifacts Can Fetch Millions of Dollars at Auction og:description: Even if some of the stuff looks no better than garage sale junk og:url: https://time.com/4857517/space-exploration-artifacts/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c901f08b3dffb14/6988d59a656a3f3848bd0cff/sothebys-space-exploration-04.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1269 og:image:height: 714 og:image:alt: Sotheby's Space Exploration og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Space Exploration Artifacts Can Fetch Millions of Dollars at Auction twitter:description: Even if some of the stuff looks no better than garage sale junk twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c901f08b3dffb14/6988d59a656a3f3848bd0cff/sothebys-space-exploration-04.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Space Exploration Artifacts Can Fetch Millions of Dollars at Auction > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Updated: Dec 13, 2023 5:49 AM UTCPublished: Jul 14, 2017 4:02 PM UTC  Flown to the Moon on Apollo 11-Command Module Pilot Michael Collins’ Crew-Signed Apollo 11 Emblem. One of the very flew flown Apollo 11 mission artifacts to be signed by Neil Armstrong. Flown to the Moon on Apollo 11-Command Module Pilot Michael Collins’ Crew-Signed Apollo 11 Emblem. One of the very flew flown Apollo 11 mission artifacts to be signed by Neil Armstrong. Courtesy of Sotheby's  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Updated: Dec 13, 2023 5:49 AM UTCPublished: Jul 14, 2017 4:02 PM UTC It’s impossible to put a price on the rocks and dirt brought back from the [moon](http://time.com/4857071/moon-dust-neil-armstrong-auction/) by the[ six Apollo landing missions](http://time.com/4808972/a-new-way-of-seeing-the-apollo-moon-missions/) — the rare case in which the word “priceless” applies literally. But one way to grasp the value of lunar samples is to compare them to something else we prize highly: gold. Over the course of history, about 425 million pounds of gold have been mined and refined. That’s 505,000 times more by weight than the 842 pounds of samples carried home from the moon. Gold currently trades at a per-ounce price of around $1,215\. Using that as a benchmark and multiplying by scarcity, moon dirt should trade at over $614 million per ounce.  Apollo 11 Contingency Lunar Sample Return Bag. Used by Neil Armstrong on Apollo 11 to bring back the very first pieces of the moon ever collected, traces of which remain in the bag. Courtesy of Sotheby's It’s not likely anyone will pay nearly that much for the lunar dust that will be sold at Sotheby’s during an auction of space artifacts on July 20 — the 48th anniversary of the [first moon landing](http://time.com/4404845/moon-landing-stories/). There will hardly be an ounce of the stuff anyway, just a few grains and stains trapped in the fabric of a sample return bag carried home by the Apollo 11 crew. Still, that’s enough for the Sotheby’s appraisers to estimate a $2 million to $4 million sales range for the bag. Space artifacts have that kind of effect on people, and the auction house is counting on a big pay day when the sample bag and the 172 other items being auctioned along with it go under the hammer. Some of the space merch on offer is, at least by cosmic standards, relatively commonplace stuff: the familiar photo of Buzz Aldrin standing on the Sea of Tranquility, but signed by Buzz himself; a patch from Apollo 11, but one that was actually carried on the spacecraft to the moon and back. There are, too, actual pieces of actual ships — an altimeter cover flown aboard Apollo 9 and signed by mission commander Jim McDivitt, a pyrotechnic battery from the Apollo 11 lunar module. None of it looks any more glamorous than garage junk, except it’s garage junk that once left our planet and is therefore limned in a special light. Perhaps most evocative is the astronauts’ in-flight paperwork — a signed lunar map used by Apollo 8 navigator Jim Lovell when he and two crewmates became the first human beings to orbit the moon; a flight plan, filled with scribbled notes and workarounds, that Lovell and his Apollo 13 crew used 16 months later as they brought their crippled spacecraft back to Earth. Artifacts are, by definition, backward looking things, and without a clear destination for America’s present-day space program, moon artifacts take on a special poignancy. The nation will surely find its way in space again, but the relics of the Apollo era — the first grand age of exploration — will likely never lose their value.  Buzz Aldrin at Tranquility Base. The Apollo program’s most iconic image. Large color photograph taken by Neil Armstrong of Buzz Aldrin during their Apollo 11 moonwalk. Signed & inscribed by Buzz Aldrin. Courtesy of Sotheby's  Flown Apollo 11 flight plan sheet. One of the few sheets describing crew activities while on the moon. Courtesy of Sotheby's  NASA Apollo 11 Press Release Photograph Collection. Contains 10 photos, with 4 signed by Buzz Aldrin. Courtesy of Sotheby's  Flown to the Moon on Apollo 11-Command Module Pilot Michael Collins’ Crew-Signed Apollo 11 Emblem. One of the very flew flown Apollo 11 mission artifacts to be signed by Neil Armstrong. Courtesy of Sotheby's  Records File on the First Flight by USSR Citizen Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin Made on Spaceship-Sputnik “Vostok” April 12, 1961\. The official English-Language Governmental report of one of the greatest moments in human history – signed by Gagarin and others. Courtesy of Sotheby's  Front cover of the flown Apollo 13 Flight Plan. Courtesy of Sotheby's  This caricature of Apollo 13 Command Module Pilot Jack Swigert was drawn into the Apollo 13 Flight Plan—one of several that Johnson Space Centre artist Barbara Matelski created as a surprise for the flight crew. Swigert successfully ran for Congress after his days as an astronaut, but died due to cancer before he could serve. 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