Moon Trophy

It has been well established that as part of our journey through American Military History the space program falls under our purview. There are few things that exemplary the accomplishments of the program like moon rocks. Rocks that were brought back to Earth from the moon. How cool is that?

Now for the really cool part. Moon rocks that are currently on the Earth can be traced to one of three sources. Rocks that were brought back purposefully but the Apollo missions. Rocks that were brought back by the Soviet unmanned probes of the 70’s. And the ones that came to Earth the hard way as meteorites after being ejected from the surface of the Moon.

Six Apollo mission brought back over 800 pounds of rocks. These rocks are generally considered priceless and while the majority of them are in secured facilities some have found their way out to the collectors market and of course in museums around the world. In fact, in 1970 President Nixon distributed samples as goodwill gifts to all fifty states as well as 135 countries.

So how much is priceless? Well, first of all, if you had any of the real samples in your collection, your name is more than likely on a list somewhere.  In 1993 three small fragments from the Soviet collections that weighed approximately 0.2g sold for $442,500. What is that per pound? No idea, that kind of math is beyond me. Suffice to say their value is amazing but even more than their monetary value is the value as a trophy. A trophy of what we can accomplish. We went to the Moon and brought something back. Think about that the next time you go out for milk.