House passes bill that attempts to protect Apollo Moon sites
The House today passed a bill that would require any American business planning a Moon mission to agree to not disturb the Apollo lunar landing sites.
[The bill] requires any federal agency that issues a license to conduct a lunar activity to require the applicant to agree to abide by recommendations in the 2011 NASA report “NASA’s Recommendations to Space-Faring Entities: How to Protect and Preserve the Historic and Scientific Value of U.S. Government Artifacts” and any successor recommendations, guidelines or principles issued by NASA.
All well and good, but this does nothing to stop other nations from touching those sites. Moreover, making all of those sites and whatever the astronauts did there totally sacrosanct is not reasonable. On the later Apollo landings the astronauts used a rover to travel considerable distances. Should every spot the astronauts visited by now considered holy? If anything, scientists will wish to return and gather more data at these locations to better understand the initial Apollo results.
Not that any of this really matters. In the long run the decision on how much these sites should be protected will be made by the people who live on the Moon. I suspect, as pioneers living on the edge of survival, they will have less interest in making memorials to past achievements and be more focused on getting things done, now.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The House today passed a bill that would require any American business planning a Moon mission to agree to not disturb the Apollo lunar landing sites.
[The bill] requires any federal agency that issues a license to conduct a lunar activity to require the applicant to agree to abide by recommendations in the 2011 NASA report “NASA’s Recommendations to Space-Faring Entities: How to Protect and Preserve the Historic and Scientific Value of U.S. Government Artifacts” and any successor recommendations, guidelines or principles issued by NASA.
All well and good, but this does nothing to stop other nations from touching those sites. Moreover, making all of those sites and whatever the astronauts did there totally sacrosanct is not reasonable. On the later Apollo landings the astronauts used a rover to travel considerable distances. Should every spot the astronauts visited by now considered holy? If anything, scientists will wish to return and gather more data at these locations to better understand the initial Apollo results.
Not that any of this really matters. In the long run the decision on how much these sites should be protected will be made by the people who live on the Moon. I suspect, as pioneers living on the edge of survival, they will have less interest in making memorials to past achievements and be more focused on getting things done, now.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
With privately commissiond rockets available, the one-of-a-kind artifacts will be worth far more than Luna rocks if you’re a billionaire private collector.
Expect the landing sites to be the objects of a “Gold rush” race to retrieve them first for the highest bidding. Especially now their value just went up.
I’m not saying this to be cruel or prophetic, One only needs to look at any ancient sites that have been excavated on earth to know that human nature is self fulfilling. (Do you have an Egyptian artifact? Do you want to buy one? Perhaps one from Pompeii?
Gates would want to “erase” the site to say the lunar landing never happened, Zuckerberg would target the site with graffiti, Bezos would put it on eBay. (China will make replicas so that everyone can have a piece of authenticated fake artifacts)
Take lots of photographs, there’s no way to secure a site like this. Hand slapping doesn’t work.
Wayne might know, wasn’t there a TV show in the 70s that was predicated on a junk man building a rocket to retrieve space junk from the moon for resale?
We had to deal with that during the GLXP. NASA coordinates procedures for approaching the protected sites (for landers and rovers), but they’re not too burdensome. And the heritage sites are so few and rather small that they won’t get in the way of other missions or settlers, unless one explicitly wants to visit them.
Whether other countries (or companies registered in them) will violate the wishes of the US will be seen. While it’s not legally binding for others, violating the sites might provoke diplomatic and other reactions.
” While it’s not legally binding for others, violating the sites might provoke diplomatic and other reactions.”
Did that stop ISIS or the Taliban”
Col Beausabre,
It’s still a difference whether rogue actors aim to attack Albanian or American property.
Max – That show you spoke of was “Salvage 1” that starred Andy Griffith. I remember it well.
From the Wiki listing:
Plot
The pilot centers on Harry Broderick (Andy Griffith) who owns the Jettison Scrap and Salvage Co. and is a specialist in reclaiming trash and junk to sell as scrap. His dream is to recover equipment left on the Moon during Apollo Program missions. In the show’s opening title narration, Harry states:
“I wanna build a spaceship, go to the Moon, salvage all the junk that’s up there, bring it back and sell it.”
The Vulture
Harry builds a spaceship dubbed Vulture, made completely from reclaimed salvage and powered by a chemical called monohydrazine. The main body of Vulture is composed of a Texaco gasoline semi-trailer tank truck with a cement mixer as the capsule. This is augmented with three shorter rocket boosters placed 120 degrees around the main tank.
Here is one guy’s remembrance. Lots of good history and backstory.
https://youtu.be/XdJu-dA5VZ4
(6:29)
Jeff, thanks. Brings back good memories of my childhood.