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T O P I C R E V I E Whbw60Over the years, I've noticed that it's incredibly easy to find Kapton foil fragments from Apollo 11, it's slightly less easy to find fragments from Apollo 13, and it's very rare to find fragments from any other mission. This is true on eBay, along with most space auctions. Every auction seems to have four to five Apollo 11 displays, maybe one to two for Apollo 13, and then generally nothing for the others.Is there a reason for this? My big fear is that the artifacts have been misrepresented, either by accident or by greed. And after decades of the artifacts changing hands, eventually almost all of them have become attributed to Apollo 11.But I hope I'm wrong about that. I hope there's a more honest reason for it. Does anyone have any information on this?Pete SarmientoThis material is available in the market. anybody could fake it that it come from the Apollo 11 spacecraft or any other mission using this material. Beware!SpaceAholicPurchase a roll, crumple, shred into tiny fragments, sandwich between a couple of lucite plates with appropriate descriptor, presto!rgarnerLike many things in this market, the source is everything.Robert PearlmanThere have certainly been cases of misidentification, some purposeful. Like any space-flown artifact, provenance is important when considering Kapton fragments.But to the larger question, the disparity between Apollo 11 Kapton on the market versus samples from other missions, I think it has do with several factors. Like many types of mementos, we have seen there was a greater tendency for people to retain Apollo 11 items over other missions.Likewise, the market for Apollo 11 mementos is stronger than any other mission, so there has been a financial driver to bring Apollo 11 samples to sale.Then there is NASA, which made an effort — albeit not entirely successful — to curtail Kapton collecting after the Apollo 11 mission. Before and up to the July 1969 mission, the space agency did little to nothing to stop recovery team members and those at North American from taking mementos.There are other reasons, but I believe the above three play a considerable part.GACspaceguyDoing some VERY rough calculations and assuming 1/3 of the surface Kapton was out there somewhere. You could get about 200,000 1/8 square inch pieces. And I say again, VERY rough calculations based on approximate surface area of the CM.hbw60Thanks so much for your replies, everyone! That's all very good information to have. Luckily, my two Kapton pieces came from reliable sources. And Robert, thanks for explaining why relics from other missions are so rare.
Is there a reason for this? My big fear is that the artifacts have been misrepresented, either by accident or by greed. And after decades of the artifacts changing hands, eventually almost all of them have become attributed to Apollo 11.
But I hope I'm wrong about that. I hope there's a more honest reason for it. Does anyone have any information on this?
But to the larger question, the disparity between Apollo 11 Kapton on the market versus samples from other missions, I think it has do with several factors.
Like many types of mementos, we have seen there was a greater tendency for people to retain Apollo 11 items over other missions.
Likewise, the market for Apollo 11 mementos is stronger than any other mission, so there has been a financial driver to bring Apollo 11 samples to sale.
Then there is NASA, which made an effort — albeit not entirely successful — to curtail Kapton collecting after the Apollo 11 mission. Before and up to the July 1969 mission, the space agency did little to nothing to stop recovery team members and those at North American from taking mementos.
There are other reasons, but I believe the above three play a considerable part.
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