Lunar Sample Bag Sold At A Government Auction By Mistake
A woman combing the Internet for deals found one in a piece of history. After a court case gave her clear title she wants to auction off the item to the highest bidder. When did it become normal to get paid for doing a good deed for one’s country?
Neil Armstrong’s giant leap for mankind onto the moon allowed him to make several small scoops there as well. Collecting lunar dust and rocks in a specially designed decontamination bag to bring home, the rocks became national treasures.
The bag — not so much. It was forgotten about until resurfacing three years ago on a government auction website that space enthusiast Nancy Carlson liked to check out.
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NASA told Carlson that yes, her bag had been to the moon, but no, they would not be returning it since — they said — it never should’ve been sold to start with. Carlson had to sue to get her bag back.
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The bag is expected to fetch $2-4 million — not a bad return on Carlson’s $995 investment.
“I found a piece of history that everybody forgot about,” Carlson says. “So that’s my great gratification in all this. I saved it from being lost.”
“I saved it from being lost”, Carlson said. Well, no she didn’t. Because this a one of a kind of item, since moon rock related items aren’t suppose to be sold, she is selling it to the higher bidder. Unless that bidder then donates it to a museum, we won’t probably see the item again publicly.
NASA should have refunded her money to her and kept the bag instead the lady is going to make a profit off a mistake.
Carlson should have donated it to a museum or at least offered it for the same price she paid for it. In another article she says she will be donating the money to charity, my guess it will be a token amount especially if she does get the $4 million speculated.
It’s a shame she feels she needs to profit off a mistake especially when the mistake involves one of America’s technological relics.
