With the 50th anniversary of the first moon landings coming up and the prospect
of having new lunar explorers both state-sponsored and private companies
how do you protect what are arguably some of the most important scientific
and cultural historic sites in human history.
You would think that the very position of the Apollo landing sites, the Russian
lunokhods and the Chinese Jade rabbit would be enough to keep them safe but
there is a similar parallel with a wreck of a Titanic. That sank in 1912 in 3800
meters, roughly 12,500 feet of water, its exact
position unknown in what was thought to be an unattainable place, that was until
its discovery in 1985 and within just a few years treasure hunters were
recovering artifacts in what many compared to as grave robbing or the
plundering of the pyramids. Now obviously it's far more difficult to get to the
moon than it is to the Titanic but these days it's not beyond the rich and
powerful or other similarly advanced countries, you can imagine what a piece
of Apollo 11 would be worth to a rich collector or finding Buzz Aldrin's boots
on ebay, the ones which he had to leave behind to help compensate for the extra
22 kilograms of moon rocks and soil they brought back, not the ones he might use
to kick moon hoax believers with. But it's not just for Salvage of the parts
which might be an issue Apollo 12 did just that when they achieved a precise
landing next to the Surveyor 3 probe and removed its TV camera and other
parts and brought them back to earth for examination. As Apollo 12 found out, just
being in the vicinity of a landing site could damage not only the physical
objects left behind but also things like those first footprints and trails left
by Armstrong and Aldrin as they traversed of a lunar surface. Without
weather, wind, rain or volcanic activity those footprints could stay there
undisturbed for hundreds of thousands or even millions of years unless of course
they were hit by a meteor or filled in with dust from a nearby spacecraft
landing. Landing on the lunar surface can launch the highly abrasive lunar dust to
speeds of several kilometers per second and with no air resistance to slow it
down or much gravity to pull it back to the surface it can easily travel tens or
hundreds of kilometers and effectively sandblast
anything it hits. Any robotic Rovers, astronauts or even future space tourists
in a historic landing area could inadvertently contaminate or damage the
original trails with extra dust or biological elements whilst they move
around and even hovering above the sites could also damage them. Whilst this all
might seem a bit far off consider the Google X PRIZE which ran from 2007 and
ended unresolved in March 2018. It offered a prize of $20 Million
for the first private team to land a spacecraft on the moon, travel at
least 500 meters and send back high-res pictures or video. That had 10 registered
entrants from different countries around the world they even offered a bonus
prize if they could get pictures of an Apollo site, although that was a bit of a
contentious issue with NASA. One of the things which scientists are very
interested in is seeing how objects which were left behind fared. Even now we
have very little hard data on how harsh solar radiation, wide swings of
temperature and even micro meteors have affected the man-made objects over the
decades since they were left. So with a possibility of a new wave of lunar
explorers, NASA and the US government have issued guidelines for both US
foreign space agencies and private companies. Now the Landers, Rovers and
other equipment left behind are still the property of the governments which
place them there and woe betide any American company that might want to get
a piece of any American lunar mission leave at Apollo or previous ones like
the Ranger or surveyor ones. But it's not like there's any guards there to stop
anyone from trying be that in person or by remote control. But the land on which
they are currently placed is a different matter under. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty
of the OST, the moon, the planets the asteroids and comets are all common land
and are not owned by anyone and are effectively open to everyone. This was
agreed upon to stop the land grab so often seen here on earth and the ensuing
battles be that legal or physical but followed. The problem now is that even if
the U.S. attempts to amend or create new treaties that cover the protection of
the Apollo sites for the scientific good, others will see it as the beginning of a
way in which the U.S. could justify claiming land for itself and if the U.S.
could do it then the Russians, the Chinese and even private space companies
could try the same. Previous agreements have taken up to 15 years to set up and
if it takes that long again, the chances are that the new lunar visitors will
have already been there before they come into place. Also there is still no real
agreement in place for when private companies or foreign space agencies
start to prospect and mine the moon , other than to just leave the historic landing
sites well alone. But if anything is to go by it'll be able lawyers that will be
making as much of a killing as the future miners of the moon. So how do you
think we should protect our space heritage on the moon or in space, let me
know in the comments below and why not check out some of our other videos at
the same time. I'd also like to thank you all for watching and all our patrons for
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