Here’s a chance to literally give someone the moon … lunar soil from a Soviet mission to the Moon is up for grabs … but it’s going to cost seven figures.
Moondust recovered from the USSR’s last successful lunar probe is up for sale over at Moments In Time … with a whopping $1,250,000 price tag for three tiny pieces.
The lunar soil sample particles were collected from the moon way back in 1976, when the Soviets sent their Luna 24 probe up into space. The probe landed near the Moon’s then-unexplored “Mare Crisium” and drilled two meters into the soil, collecting 170 grams of moondust.
The Luna 24 mission was historic … in addition to being the last lunar spacecraft launched by the Soviet Union, it’s also the last probe from any country to make a soft landing on the planet.
What’s more, these moondust particles are the only known Luna 24 material to fall into private hands. They were first gifted to Soviet First Secretary Leonid Brezhnev on his 70th birthday in 1976, and when he died the moondust went to his daughter, who eventually passed the lunar soil on to a private collector.
For $1.25 mil, the buyer gets the moondust and a scale model of the Luna 24 lunar lander probe … plus a magnifying glass for an up-close look.
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