Space-Exploration Artifacts Are Worth So Much for a Reason

It's impossible to put a price on the rocks and dirt brought back from the moon by the six Apollo landing missions — the rare case in which the word "priceless" applies literally. But one way to grasp the value of lunar samples is to compare them to something else we prize highly: gold. Over the course of history, about 425 million pounds of gold have been mined and refined. That's 505,000 times more by weight than the 842 pounds of samples carried home from the moon.

It's impossible to put a price on the rocks and dirt brought back from the moon by the six Apollo landing missions — the rare case in which the word "priceless" applies literally. But one way to grasp the value of lunar samples is to compare them to something else we prize highly: gold. Over the course of history, about 425 million pounds of gold have been mined and refined. That's 505,000 times more by weight than the 842 pounds of samples carried home from the moon.