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Protecting the Apollo Landing Sites From Later Landings

R3d M3rcury writes "The Lunar X-Prize is a contest offering $20 million to the first private organization to land and maneuver a robotic rover on the moon. There is also a $1 million bonus to anyone who can get a picture of a man-made object on the moon. But one archeologist believes that 'The sites of early lunar landings are of unparalleled significance in the history of humanity, and extraordinary caution should be taken to protect them.' He's concerned that we may end up with rover tracks destroying historic artifacts, such as Neil Armstrong's first bootprint, or that a mistake could send a rocket slamming into a landing site. He calls on the organizers to ban any contestant from landing within 100KM of a prior moon landing site. Now he seems to think this just means Apollo. What about the Luna and Surveyor landers? What about the Lunokhod rovers? Are they fair game?"

27 of 339 comments (clear)

  1. 100km is excessive by someone1234 · · Score: 5, Funny

    How many places would remain if all those spots are banned? There are only so much good landing sites on the Moon.

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    1. Re:100km is excessive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah, but 640K landing sites ought to be enough for anybody.

  2. Why Worry? by robbiedo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Erosion has probably already destroyed the first footsteps on the Moon.

    1. Re:Why Worry? by digitalchinky · · Score: 4, Funny

      Fry will slap nike all over it long before then anyway.

    2. Re:Why Worry? by gaderael · · Score: 2, Funny

      In space, no one can here me "whoosh!"

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  3. The Consipiracy Continues by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    And keeping people away from the original "landing site" will keep them from figuring out that the first moon landing was faked by the government. (Or was it faked by our evil reptilian overlords? I can never keep that straight.)

    1. Re:The Consipiracy Continues by un1quen1ck · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah, as seen on Youtube, moon landing was faked on a soundstage on Mars. Otherwise, how come there's gravity if it's supposedly on Moon?

    2. Re:The Consipiracy Continues by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 2, Funny

      So your theory is the first bootprint on the moon was wiped out long ago by a camera operator on his smoke break?

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  4. Depends on who gets there next by Centurix · · Score: 3, Funny

    I can't imagine the bootprint lasting long if North Korea make it up there.

    You think those were nuclear missiles they were firing? North Korea are planning the worlds first single stage rocket 'landing' on the moon, with their great leader strapped to the front because he is so awesome he can actually reduce drag.

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    Task Mangler
  5. Re:Chinese Policy by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Or they could use the traditional method of setting up a factory and dumping tons of toxic waste into the area, eventually degrading the place to a point that no one remembers it ever being pristine.

  6. Re:Ugh by EdIII · · Score: 5, Funny

    It is a shame that some people exist merely to hold the rest of us back from our ideal Star Trek future with green alien babes.

    Yeah.... and you know who was the best example of that? Captain Fucking James T. Kirk.

    You think one of the "red shirts" got to do it with a green alien babe? Of course not. It was Captain Kirk nailing all the Intergalactic Strange throughout the Alpha Quadrant.

    If we had that future, you would still be bitching. Your best option would be the overweight Bolian chick down in engineering. You would NOT want to go down to the planet. All you would ever hear about it is how Captain Kirk made it up back up with just a few seconds to spare, shirtless with sucker marks all over him, but Steve the poor S.O.B that transferred last week died a horrible death on the planet while some strange alien animal was sodomizing his corpse. Steve's parents would have to get a message about how his cause of death was "mauling by alien genitalia on Rontos 5".

  7. Re:There is a house in New Orleans by daveime · · Score: 2, Funny

    I hope you remembered to tell your children, not to do as I have done ?

    Me, I've got one foot on the platform, the other foot on the train. The train left 5 minutes ago, and now I have a severe crotch pain.

    Thankfully, my mother is a tailor, and will be able to sew my ripped blue jeans. As for Father, he's either in a gambling house, or lying on top of a drunk (always confused me too, but listen to the original lyrics .. he does say "the only time he's satisfied is when he's *on* a drunk".

  8. Re:The bootprint is might be getting fuzzy by now by weirdcrashingnoises · · Score: 3, Funny

    oh yeah? name one.

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  9. Re:That's retarded by SlashWombat · · Score: 3, Funny

    Lets face it, all the lunar hardware will end up back on Earth, in a museum. (Or perhaps private collections.) Obviously, this professor is a loony. (PUN ishment)

  10. Re:The bootprint is might be getting fuzzy by now by vegiVamp · · Score: 3, Funny

    > doesn't mean we shouldn't make wildlife preserves

    Mmm dodo jerky.

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  11. Re:That's retarded, and more than you think by phoenix321 · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's about tourists in a future a thousand years from now. You obviously never watched Futurama, right? :)

  12. So are computers and internet... by denzacar · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... as long as there are people living without access to electricity of telephone.
    Or cars, while people without legs are forced to use wheelchairs.
    Or refined sugar and flour because you waste energy and pollute the environment just so richer people could have better tasting but less healthy food.
    Heck... having two perfectly working kidneys is immoral as long as there is at least one person in the world strapped to a dialysis machine somewhere.
    Blood is immoral too... people bleed to death constantly. CON-STAN-TLY!!! Like, right now!
    Breathing? Fucking hell yeah it is immoral! And rude to all those people that drowned on the Titanic. When you breathe - you embellish their memory and all that they have ever achieved.
    Existing? Well, naturally! By your very existence you are preventing other humans to take up that space. Immoral as a 3-tit whore!
    And let us not even start with smaller creatures, like cats. Have you any idea how many cats could exist in the space you presently occupy? A lot!

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  13. Re:That's retarded by Ihlosi · · Score: 5, Funny

    People who spray paint anything on the Grand Canyon should be shot on sight.

    Great, then you get partially-finished graffiti _and_ blood stains on the walls.

  14. Re:That's retarded, and more than you think by RDW · · Score: 4, Funny

    Fry: Look! It's the moon landing site! We found it!
    Leela: Fry, get in here.
    Fry: It's that flag from MTV, and Neil Armstrong's footprint!
    [Puts his foot over Armstrong's footprint, leaving a Nike footprint in its place]
    Fry: Hey, my foot's bigger. Leela, isn't this the greatest thing you've ever seen?
    Leela: Fry, look around! It's just a crummy plastic flag and a dead man's tracks in the dust. Now get in here before you freeze.

  15. Re:That's retarded by Talderas · · Score: 4, Funny

    Are we gonna freeze Lance Armstrong when he dies?

    What does some bicyclist have to do with preserving the moon?

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  16. Re:That's retarded, and more than you think by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    FINE! I'll go build my own moon lander! With blackjack! And hookers! In fact, forget the moon lander and the blackjack. Ah, screw the whole thing!

  17. Re:That's retarded, and more than you think by BlackCobra43 · · Score: 4, Funny

    So what you are saying is we should make our OWN lunar landing site, with blackjack, and hookers. In fact, forget about the lunar landing site.

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  18. Re:That's retarded by tick_and_bash · · Score: 3, Funny

    For some reason, I keep seeing Fry step on that footstep and leaving the Nike symbol behind. (Futurama ref.)

  19. Re:That's retarded by Cowmonaut · · Score: 2, Funny

    So to show how NOT authoritarian we are you had best help your country and start tagging! America needs YOU to to spray Baby Jesus riding a Dinosaur on the backwall of Applebees!

  20. Re:That's retarded, and more than you think by Sausage+Nibblets · · Score: 3, Funny

    Ahem, we're whalers on the moon...

  21. Re:That's retarded by scorp1us · · Score: 2, Funny

    That sir, is just part of the Nevada desert.

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  22. Re:The bootprint is might be getting fuzzy by now by Hognoxious · · Score: 2, Funny

    Heating and cooling once a month would expand and contract the soil

    Nah, they landed on the dark side.

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