Any ideas as to what sort of prices Moon stones, fossil or not would
fetch on Earth?
PtP
If by lunar stones you mean meteorites, the prices range from
~$1500-5000 per gram. You can find reputable online suppliers of
specimens ranging from tiny fragments to slices to whole pieces.
Any ideas as to what sort of prices Moon stones, fossil or not would fetch on Earth?
Just speculation, but my guess would be they’d fetch an official
investigation… Maybe I’m wrong, but so far as I know, all the moon
rocks on earth that are verifiably known to be from the moon were
brought back by the apollo missions, and would thus likely be the
property of nasa or similar scientific entities, and not likely for
sale… Am I wrong in this?
cheers
Peter
A most peculiar inquiry as it’s a bit confusing:
Any ideas as to what sort of prices Moon stones, fossil or not would fetch on Earth?
Do you, in fact, mean stones from the moon? Or moonstones? I don’t
think there could be any fossils from the moon as there wasn’t ever
any life there, and I’m pretty certain “fossil” refers to something
that was once alive. Or are you referring to fossils (like ammonite)
that are found here on this planet? But then I’ve never heard of any
fossilized moonstone on this, or any other, planet. I wouldn’t be
surprised if there was feldspar in some meteorites, but I’m pretty
certain none of it is actually moonstone. Perhaps the first question
should be (since your phrasing leaves it a wee bit ambiguous) are
you from Earth and trying to appraise something from another planet
or are you from another planet, looking to make a killing by bringing
in fossilized stones from a moon we don’t yet know about?
Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Daniel R. Spirer Jewelers, LLC
1780 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambrige, MA 02140
$1,500-$5,000/gram even if they don’t contain fosssils. Wow!
As Peter Rowe notes, of course the authenticity will be very
carefully scrutinized. Daniel made a good point too that the original
posting was confusing. That is because the backgrounder was
truncated.
I expressed an opinion that I would be very surprised if
micro-fossils were not found on Mars etc. given that microbes live
miles below us in rock. Thus when volcanoes and impacts eject rocks
from Earth into space, I expect some microbes to go as well. There
should be fossils on the Moon.
Then the discussion returned to Moon economics. NASA will be starting
a base there before 2020, a “Moon Town” as CBS calls it. So one
wonders about what Lunar exports might keep the Moon Town economy
going. If fossils fetch the premium price per gram, that might be
the start of Lunar mining exports.
PtP
There should be fossils on the Moon.
Absolutely not one iota of scientific evidence to back this
statement up. You can think what you like but science doesn’t say
it’s so.
NASA will be starting a base there before 2020
I’d love to see this happen, but frankly I don’t think there’s much
chance of this either. Far more likely is a base started by a
private company or another country who doesn’t have citizens who
dislike taxation so much.
I expressed an opinion that I would be very surprised if
micro-fossils were not found on Mars etc. given that microbes live
miles below us in rock.
This should be proven with the latest Mars lander but to date all
speculation on this subject is just that: speculation. None of this,
of course, resolves the issue of pricing of rocks from the moon with
or without fossils since none are currently available. You can’t
establish appraisal prices on something that isn’t based on reality,
but merely on wishful thinking. Appraisal prices are based on actual
sales of similar items. There are no similar items, hence no way to
establish a price.
There was a recent op ed article in the Boston Globe on why no other
life has been found other than on Earth. Basically it said that if
life was found elsewhere it meant we were doomed. I can’t remember
enough to go into details but you might want to troll through their
archives for this. It was printed within the last few weeks.
Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Daniel R. Spirer Jewelers, LLC
1780 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambrige, MA 02140
Any ideas as to what sort of prices Moon stones, fossil or not would fetch on Earth?
Well, considering that collecting 200-300 pounds of them cost
several hundred million dollars, and that the ones I have seen are
not (geologists, please forgive me) very interesting rocks in and of
themselves, I seriously doubt there is a profitable market for Moon
(lunar) rocks for the foreseeable future.
If any such rock was found to include a fossil, that would be MAJOR
headline material, and since no such headlines have appeared outside
of the National Enquirer, any “Moon rocks” involving fossils would
have to be considered fakes. They should earn the seller, at the very
least, a slap upside the head.
Steve
Gems Evermore
http://www.gemsevermore.com
There should be fossils on the Moon.
Absolutely not one iota of scientific evidence to back this statement up. You can think what you like but science doesn't say it's so.
http://www.panspermia.org/zhmur2.htm
First hit from Googling “fossils on moon” - not definative, but
provocative.
NASA will be starting a base there before 2020
I'd love to see this happen, but frankly I don't think there's much chance of this either.
All of which is really beside the point, as Daniel pointed out. The
fascinating thing is that if there are fossils on other moons or
planets, where did they come from? Earth or elsewhere? The moon has
never been “alive” - Mars is in question, but the moon has never
been big enough to hold an atmosphere, among other things. Having a
base on the moon is pretty much a done deal, probably - the question
is when and by whom, mostly, and in these times I like to remember
that it’s unless mankind’s population gets cut in half due to global
warming’s effects - unpleasant but humankind may have to shift some
priorities in the next 100 years.
Just FYI - I’m no expert on space travel, but I grew up with it up
close and personal. My father was an engineer with the manned space
program beginning with the V-2’s brought over from Germany. My
mother liked to tell the story of how she had to go across the
courtyard and apologise to Mrs. Von Braun (who didn’t speak English)
because my 2 year old sister went and stomped on their egg delivery,
just for fun. Sat in the X-15, Dad came home and said “The Freedom
Seven” had stopped by today, my older brother babysat astronaut’s
kids, toured the backside of MSC - lots of stuff. Mercury, Gemini
and Apollo. Just a bit of me…
Thanks for the interesting link on Moon fossils. I wonder what they
would sell for if they are exported by the Moon Town?
What do you think? A microscope with projector and the sample in a
nice display case?
It’s an interesting exercise in Earth-Moon economics. What can Moon
supply that Earth wants?
PtP
It's an interesting exercise in Earth-Moon economics. What can Moon supply that Earth wants?
I am writing it from the top of my head, so my apologies for any
inaccuracy.
Quite a few yeas ago scientists proposed Nuclear Fusion. In plain
language it is a nuclear reaction without harmful radiation and whole
bunch another benefits. A dream come true.
The problem was that it take mores energy to start the reaction than
you can get out of it. The theory stated that heavy isotopes of
Hydrogen can make it work, but there very little of it on Earth.
Somebody took a look at lunar samples collected by Apollo mission
and it appears that there is plenty of that stuff on the Moon. I read
somewhere that Japanese and Chinese are working overtime building
spaceships to land on the Moon, mine the ore and deliver it to Earth.
Why NASA is not doing that, your guess is as good as mine.
Leonid Surpin
I wonder what they would sell for if they are exported by the Moon Town?
Ok I’ll bite.
Let’s assume, for argument’s sake, that it costs 500 billion to set
up Moon Town (perhaps we should call it Lunacity or just Lunacy for
short) a not unreasonable figure given what the war in Iraq is
costing. Then the question is, what other exports are they going to
have? Are moon fossils the only ones? In that case, how many moon
fossils are they going to find? Let’s say they find 100 pounds of
fossil rock to export to Earth. So the 100 lbs would be worth about 5
billion dollars (this of course isn’t including any profit on it).
That’s about 50 million dollars a pound. I’m not sure there’s going
to be a huge market for them at this price, so you would have to
adjust the price downwards to reflect the marketplace.
Of course then there’s the problem that once Lunacy is set up, we
can assume there will be fairly regular space trips. That means that
anyone with some extra cash can fly to the moon and set up their own
mines for moon fossils. What happens if they find out that the whole
moon is one big fossil??? In usual human fashion, the entire thing
will be dismantled and sent to Earth (given the market value we’ve
already established). But then where are we going to store the entire
Moon on Earth (even if it is in bits and pieces), not to mention the
expense of having the whole thing shipped back to Earth. I mean if
Fed Ex is already charging about $25 for an overnight shipment just
from Boston to New York, what do you think Space Ex is going to
charge to get the stuff back from there?
Plus somewhere, in my admittedly old, science education, I was
taught that we kind of need the Moon to keep the tides running
properly. So if we’re going to mine the entire Moon, then we’ll have
to build a new synthetic moon to replace it. But then this raises
another question. What would be the value of synthetic moon
fossils??? I mean after all, synthetic diamonds go for a fair piece
of change. Then, of course, we would have to develop machines to
distinguish between synthetic moon fossils and real ones.
Certificates would have to be issued. We would have to create the
Moonological Institute of Lunacy (MIL for short) to issue them. But
then competing labs would be jumping in there. Soon we would have the
Marsological Institute of Lunacy (also MIL for short thereby
creating issues of ownership of abbreviated names and wreaking
absolute confusion among people trying to identify these moon
fossils), and perhaps the Venus Institute of Real Analysis Labs
(VIRAL) all competing to issue certificates on these items. Actually
this could be really good for the economy as you’d be creating jobs
right and left. Plus you’d have a whole new collection of jewelers
specializing in Moon fossil jewelry (available on the web for half
the price of any bricks and mortar store).
And then think about it. This is only the Moon we’re talking about.
What about Mars? Jupiter? Saturn? My goodness, think of what those
rocks would go for!!!
Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Daniel R. Spirer Jewelers, LLC
1780 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140