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Lot 550
APOLLO 11 GOODWILL DISC. MESSAGES FROM PLANET EARTH. A circular silicon disc, 1 1/2 inches diameter but with one flattened edge,
5 December 2018, 14:00 EST
New YorkUS$7,000 - US$9,000
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APOLLO 11 GOODWILL DISC.
MESSAGES FROM PLANET EARTH. A circular silicon disc, 1 1/2 inches diameter but with one flattened edge, wafer-thin, one side coated in blueish-purple coating, etched lettering "From Planet Earth ... July 1969" visible to the naked eye, and an array of microscopic etching, the reverse gray-colored, manufactured by the Semi-Conductor Division of Sprague Electric Company of North Adams, Massachusetts.
Along with the American flag and the "We came in peace for all mankind" plaque, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left a silicon disc on the lunar surface. That disc was manufactured by Sprague, an established NASA contractor with more than 50,000 components in Apollo spacecraft. Commissioned by NASA's Electronics Research Center, it carried messages from 73 world leaders, gathered in a frantic rush by NASA and the State Department in the weeks before the launch date.
The messages were photographed, reduced 200 times, and etched onto the surface of the disc just like integrated circuits. The example carried on Apollo 11 and now on the Moon's surface, like its sister in the Smithsonian, was encased in a protective aluminum holder, with eleven sides symbolizing Apollo 11.
It is unclear how many of the discs were produced, but the consignor, a descendant of one of the company's employees states that 76 were produced:one for each country who contributed a message, one carried aboard the Apollo 11 and two extra for the family. It's likely that only a handful exist now in private hands. A prototype disc without all the messages was sold in these rooms on April 26, 2012 (lot 1202). The present example is identical to that on the Moon and is from the final run that also included a message from the Pope.
The discs have been the subject of the book by Tahir Rahman, We Came in Peace: The Untold Story of the Apollo 11 Silicon Disc (2007).
Along with the American flag and the "We came in peace for all mankind" plaque, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left a silicon disc on the lunar surface. That disc was manufactured by Sprague, an established NASA contractor with more than 50,000 components in Apollo spacecraft. Commissioned by NASA's Electronics Research Center, it carried messages from 73 world leaders, gathered in a frantic rush by NASA and the State Department in the weeks before the launch date.
The messages were photographed, reduced 200 times, and etched onto the surface of the disc just like integrated circuits. The example carried on Apollo 11 and now on the Moon's surface, like its sister in the Smithsonian, was encased in a protective aluminum holder, with eleven sides symbolizing Apollo 11.
It is unclear how many of the discs were produced, but the consignor, a descendant of one of the company's employees states that 76 were produced:one for each country who contributed a message, one carried aboard the Apollo 11 and two extra for the family. It's likely that only a handful exist now in private hands. A prototype disc without all the messages was sold in these rooms on April 26, 2012 (lot 1202). The present example is identical to that on the Moon and is from the final run that also included a message from the Pope.
The discs have been the subject of the book by Tahir Rahman, We Came in Peace: The Untold Story of the Apollo 11 Silicon Disc (2007).