Cockroaches that digested Moon-dust put up for auction; expected to fetch over Rs 3 crore

New Hampshire-based firm, RR Auction, is selling off cockroach carcasses that were fed Moon dust that was brought to Earth by Apollo 11 astronauts. What's more, is that the company is also auctioning off the dust extracted from those cockroaches that were subjects of a crucial experiment. According to RR Auction, the bidding of  "Remarkable Rarities" that began on May 26 runs through June 23 and is expected to fetch $4,00,000 or approximately Rs 3.1 crore. 

How did the cockroaches end up with Moon samples?

RR Auction's description reveals that the cockroaches were fed the samples collected from the Moon in order to observe potential pathological effects. After Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins returned from the Moon, they along with their spacecraft and everything were put in 21 days of quarantine. Even though the Moon is believed to be devoid of indigenous life, biologists feared that the astronauts might unknowingly carry germs from the lunar surface that might prove catastrophic for our planet. 

The astronauts were put in NASA's Lunar Receiving Laboratory, a facility that was made to separate the Moonwalkers from the outside world. While in isolation, the Apollo 11 crew underwent medical examinations and animal species such as fish, mice and cockroaches, Blattellas germanica or German cockroaches to be specific, were fed lunar samples to see how they would react. According to Collect Space, about 10% of 22 kg (47.5) pounds of rocks brought from the Moon were tested on these animals. 

Later on, NASA contacted Marion Brooks, an entomologist from the University of St. Paul. Notably, none of the animals died from being exposed to the extraterrestrial material and Brooks carried on with the study of cockroaches. She even dissected eight preserved cockroaches having lunar samples and prepared tissue slides for microscopic study. After Brooks's death in 2007, a small glass vial with "ground fines of lunar sample recovered from biological tests" and three of the preserved samples along with the tissue slides was sold for $10,000. RR Auction estimates that the forthcoming auction, which is a resale of the 2010 auction, will fetch around $4,00,000.