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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?"
Erosion Requires an atmosphere doesn't it?
No. They can be eroded by micrometeorites and thermal changes. But that would take millions of years.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Since the first footprint was at the end of the lunar-lander ladder, the same ladder that was used to get out and get in the Eagle again by Aldrin and Armstrong, my guess is that the very first footprint was already pretty messed up, even before they left the place...
And don't forget the blast from the rocket engine at take of.. that one was sure to wipe it of the face of the moon...
-=- I heard rumours about an OS called "Social Life", heard of it? Is it stable? -=-
Perhaps somewhat, but remember that the lunar module that blasted off from the surface of the moon was only the top half of the part that landed. The bottom half served as a launch platform and probably took the brunt of the blast.
Apollo 17 lunar module ascent.
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
What is often forgotten is that NASA has already made a start on this. The Apollo 12 mission was targetted to land right next to the Surveyor 3 lander. The astronauts removed bits of the probe and brought them back to Earth for analysis. The picture of this is one of my favourite pictures from the Apollo program. NASA didn't worry too much about preserving history back then. They were too busy making it.
I am a Statistician. One false move and you are a Statistic
So that's what happened to the Anasazi. Now, somebody just needs to go clean up the mess they left.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law