Apollo 11 moon dust taken from stomachs of cockroaches could be yours, for £320K

The Apollo 11 moon dust were brought back down to Earth from astronauts and now the strange items are up for sale but they come with a hefty price tag

Cockroach-pickled moon landing dust is up for sale and could be yours – for just £320,000.

The Apollo 11 moon dust was extracted from the stomaches of cockroach carcasses as they were reportedly brought back down to Earth from astronauts.

The rather obscure items were part of Nasa’s biological exam which looked at unsafe ‘moon bugs’.

An estimated 22 kilograms of moon rocks were brought back by the Apollo 11 mission and now they’re set to be auctioned in Boston along with items from kings and presidents.

However, the moon dust will not come cheaply as early estimates for the dust, cockroaches and memorabilia is roughly $400,000 (£322,400).

RR Auction, an American firm that specialises in space memorabilia, is overseeing the auction which opened for bids on May 26 and runs through to June 23.

Bobby Livingston, executive vice president of RR Auction, said: “The item that I’m most excited about is this Apollo 11 scientific experiment where they fed cockroaches lunar material from Apollo 11.

“This is the material, the lunar material that was digested by the cockroaches during destructive testing. This moon dust was eaten by cockroaches. And this is the remnants of it.”

When the Apollo 11 crew returned to Earth they were required to quarantine for 21 days.

This was because scientists were unsure whether the astronauts would bring back ‘moon bugs’ or germs that could be a potential danger to life on Earth.

As a result, Nasa built a facility to house the astronauts in order to be closely monitored and, as the Apollo 11 crew brought back nearly 22 kilograms of moon rocks, the men were closely tested.

The items are now up for sale and other bits in the collection include 1943 German Enigma machine that’s estimated at $275,000 and an Elon Musk signed dollar bill listed at $5,000.

Items from Babe Ruth and King Henry VIII are also up for auction.