Just shy of the 50th anniversary of the day Apollo 8 became the first manned spacecraft to circle the moon, Sotheby’s hosted their second annual Space Exploration auction. Of the lots, the most astronomical figure was commanded by ЧАСТИЦЫ ГРУНТА ЛУНЫ-16 (Soil Samples from Luna-16), which went for an out-of-this-world US$855,000 (HK$6.7 million). For the lucky winner, this was a rare prize indeed – the only known duly-authenticated lunar rocks to be in private hands. The three fragments of moon rock (brought back by the Luna-16 mission of 1970) come housed inside an encased glass and metal block, within a 5.08cm x 5.08cm sphere, and are viewable via an inbuilt adjustable lens.
Truly a heavenly purchase, previous analysis of the rock shows it to consist of basalt feldspar crystals and “finely-structured vesicular agglutinates”. With the help of the lens, it is even possible to discern the thin glass-coatings that were the legacy of an ageold meteorite impact. Making these boldly-gone mini-boulders still more special, they are also a lasting testament to the Soviet Space Era. Indeed, Luna-16 is now seen as one of the greatest