I’m sure there’s no truth in this rumor. Confusion with the Iridium satellite constellation probably accounts for the connection with NASA, although the Iridium satellites are private and have nothing to do with the government agency. NASA uses small quantities of iridium as a catalyst in hydrazine attitude jets for its satellites, and it is useful to make containers for radioactive isotope thermal generators. But I can’t imagine what use NASA would have for a “rice puller”, whatever that is, or what advantage there could possibly be in making such a thing out of a staggeringly rare and expensive metal.

Iridium is extremely rare on the Earth’s surface, occurring mainly as a small percentage impurity in platinum. It’s believed that most of the iridium on Earth is bound up with iron in the planet’s core, but occasionally small amounts are brought up through the crust by geologic activity.