Legislation introduced June 24 in the House of Representatives by Rep. Don Bacon,  R-Nebraska, seeks individual congressional gold medals to recognize the efforts of the four crew members of the Artemis II on the 10-day moon mission in April.

Unlike other pieces of legislation introduced seeking single gold medals to honor a group for recognition, Bacon’s bill, H.R. 9417, seeks individual medals for each of the four Artemis II astronauts, with cost of production to be drawn from the U.S. Mint’s Public Enterprise Fund.

Because of the price of gold per troy ounce currently exceeds $4,000, the cost of each medal in precious metal could surpass $50,000, since each medal contains between 10 and 14 troy ounces of pure gold. Design and associated production costs run an additional $5,000 per medal.

Artemis II blasted off from Kennedy Space Center in the early morning hours of April 1, and the command module splashed down April 11.

The Artemis II mission was a crewed flyby of the Moon. It is the first and currently only crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972, and the first crewed mission to orbit the Moon in over 50 years, testing the Orion spacecraft and life-support systems with four astronauts onboard.

It signifies a crucial shift to sustainable deep-space exploration, setting a record for human distance from Earth at more than 252,000 miles and enabling, for the first time, a woman and a non-American astronaut to orbit the Moon.

H.R. 9417 would authorize the Treasury secretary “to strike gold medals with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the Secretary.” Each gold medal would depict the crew of four astronauts.

The legislation also grants the Treasury secretary to direct the U.S. Mint to strike 1.5-inch and 3-inch bronze duplicate medals for retail sale, priced at $45 each for the 1.5-inch medal and $160 for the 3-inch version.

Until recently, the 1.5-inch bronze medals’ price was $20.

The 1.5-inch medal would be composed of 95% copper and 5% zinc, while the 3-inch medal would be composed of 90% copper and 10% zinc.

The full text of Bacon’s bill can be found online at www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/9417/text?s=1&r=1&hl=H.R.+9417.