[HN Gopher] For Sale: Moon Dust Collected by Neil Armstrong
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       For Sale: Moon Dust Collected by Neil Armstrong
        
       Author : rntn
       Score  : 41 points
       Date   : 2022-04-12 10:36 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.atlasobscura.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.atlasobscura.com)
        
       | nonrandomstring wrote:
       | Lies! Lies! Everyone knows the Moon is made of _cheese_.
        
       | randrews wrote:
       | > NASA planetary mineralogist Roy Christoffersen used these six
       | aluminum cylinders to test the lunar dust under an electron
       | microscope to verify it was collected during the Apollo 11
       | mission.
       | 
       | Heh, weird to see the name of an old coworker in this context.
        
       | midiguy wrote:
       | Pays 1 million dollars for a couple grams of moon dust...
       | 
       | 2 decades later Elon Musk starts mining the moon and moon dust
       | becomes a commodity going for 10$ to the kilogram
        
         | a9h74j wrote:
         | Someone once told me that, at one point, the most valuable
         | jewel in the King of England's crown was a flake of aluminum.
        
         | onion2k wrote:
         | Photography didn't make the Mona Lisa worthless.
        
           | mattnewton wrote:
           | Exactly, this will always be the first batch of moon dust as
           | long as the chain of providence can be proved.
        
       | possiblydrunk wrote:
       | From the auction site:
       | 
       | 5 Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) aluminum sample stubs, each
       | topped with approximately 10 mm diameter carbon tape containing
       | Apollo Moon dust,
       | 
       | So, this is truly a vary thin "layer" of moon dust. Maybe less
       | than a mg per sample. I wonder if there's even enough there to
       | smell it.
        
         | jrodthree24 wrote:
         | Soon we will be able to buy it on Amazon by the bucket after
         | Jeff Bezos privatizes the moon.
        
       | robotnikman wrote:
       | Apparently moon dust is very bad for your lungs if inhaled.
       | 
       | It is also an excellent Portal conductor.
        
         | speed_spread wrote:
         | To bad you can't use to make lemonade.
        
           | smnrchrds wrote:
           | Of course not. You cannot make lemonade with cheese.
        
         | nsxwolf wrote:
         | It's almost like an entire planet made out of asbestos. Dust
         | control will be a top concern for any colony.
        
         | acheron wrote:
         | Take one last look at your precious human moon. Because it
         | cannot help you now!
        
           | brimble wrote:
           | That moment when you go "surely not..." and then see the
           | little glint from the portal opening is way up on my favorite
           | moments in gaming, ever.
        
         | MrFlibbles wrote:
         | Ground up moon rocks are pure poison.
        
       | fallingfrog wrote:
       | TIL that moon dust apparently tastes and smells like gunpowder.
       | 
       | https://www.spaceanswers.com/solar-system/five-things-you-di...
       | 
       | Now you don't need to buy the moon dust, you're welcome
        
         | MisterTea wrote:
         | From the description, moon dust is very much an inhalation
         | hazard. The sharp edges means it will embed into lung tissue
         | and the composition likely causes silicosis.
        
       | Kon-Peki wrote:
       | The price per ounce/kg/whatever must be about as close to
       | infinite as you can get (for a physical object).
        
         | kjeetgill wrote:
         | You're only thinking in terms of supply but you still need
         | sufficient demand!
        
       | rntn wrote:
       | A recent study published in the April (2018) issue of the journal
       | GeoHealth examined exactly how dangerous that dust can be on a
       | cellular level -- and the results are as ominous as the dark side
       | of the moon. In several lab tests, a single scoop of replica moon
       | dust proved toxic enough to kill up to 90 percent of the lung and
       | brain cells exposed to it.
       | 
       | https://www.livescience.com/62590-moon-dust-bad-lungs-brain....
        
         | er4hn wrote:
         | This feels very "pop sciency".
         | 
         | A scoop is not a well defined amount (is that a gram? a fl
         | oz?). I'm also not sure what happens to brain cells when they
         | are exposed to most other things.
         | 
         | In the article Harrison Schmidt ended up with allergy symptoms
         | after breathing in an undefined amount of moon dust. He seemed
         | to recover after a day and not have his lungs wrecked
         | thereafter.
        
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       (page generated 2022-04-13 23:01 UTC)