July 25, 2007 — The sanctity of the first moon landing site is threatened by the dawn of a new race to put tourists in space, according to one researcher.
Beth O'Leary, a space heritage archaeologist from New Mexico State University, said this includes the imprints of man's first steps on the moon, which were made at Tranquillity Base almost 40 years ago, and remain on its surface.
O'Leary, who gave a keynote address at the recent International Council on Monuments and Sites conference in Cairns, Australia, believes the site should be protected under U.S. and U.N. heritage laws.
But she says U.S. federal authorities are concerned any move to protect the site would be viewed as an attempt to claim sovereignty over the moon.
Yet she succeeded last year in having the state of New Mexico recognize Tranquillity Base as an historic archaeological site.
How to preserve moon-based artifacts and landing sites should be thought through before the push to return to the moon and space tourism see people again walking on its surface, she said.
"If there is a not a framework or strategy in place that addresses preservation then things can go walking [and] become fodder for eBay," she says.
"Like any ancient ruin in Australia or the United States you have to pay attention to the fragility of the site. It would be terrible if you could take a moon buggy and drive over it."
With funding from NASA, O'Leary and her team have catalogued 106 items left on the lunar surface by the Apollo 11 crew using archival material from institutions such as NASA and the Smithsonian Institution.
The items listed under the Lunar Legacy project range from iconic pieces such as Armstrong's footprints and the U.S. flag stuck into the surface to items as ordinary as urine-collecting bags and space boots.
