Should the Apollo moon landing site be a National Historic Landmark?
The passing of Neil Armstrong, the first human to set foot on the moon, could energize the movement to preserve Tranquility Base and the NASA artifacts that remain there.
On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. Armstrong is pictured here, shortly after collecting a sample of lunar dust and rocks. At his feet is the handle for the sample collection tool.
NASA/Andy Chaikin/collectSPACE.com
The passing of famed astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon and commander of Apollo 11, may strengthen the movement to designate the Tranquility Base lunar landing site as a National Historic Landmark.
The field of space heritage preservation is gaining momentum, and a recently authored bill aims protect the Apollo 11鈥檚 Eagle lunar lander touchdown site and all the artifacts that astronauts聽聽and Buzz Aldrin left behind on the lunar surface.
A leading champion of the聽聽campaign is Beth O鈥橪eary, an associate professor of anthropology in New Mexico State University鈥檚 College of Arts and Sciences. 鈥淚 had one sad thought that with his passing, people may consider the site on the moon more 鈥榟istoric,鈥�" she told SPACE.com.
O鈥橪eary and Chico State University archaeology professor Lisa Westwood worked with California Congressman Dan Lungren and his staff to write the bill. []
Cultural material
There鈥檚 a total of 190 tons of cultural material on the moon, O'Leary said, and there are about 106 artifacts that are specific to the聽聽site. The effort under way is to preserve the significant technological objects that got Armstrong and Aldrin to the moon for that historic flight.
California and New Mexico have already listed Tranquility Base on their state historic registers. The next step would be the National Historic Landmark designation.
Once a property is designated a National Historic Landmark, it can be nominated for inclusion on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization鈥檚 (UNESCO) World Heritage List. []
Westwood and O鈥橪eary also have been working with the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), the World Heritage List鈥檚 advisory body, over the last three years to make the case for the Apollo sites to be added to this list.
鈥淪ites on the list now include Chaco Canyon, the Pyramids at Giza, Stonehenge,鈥� O鈥橪eary said in a press statement, 鈥渟o there are many sites on the Earth that are recognized by this group of people. Putting the first lunar landing on the list means we recognize this is an achievement for humanity.鈥�
Tangible memory
鈥淭he passing of an American hero, Neil Armstrong, saddened the world," Westwood said. "It also brings to light the importance of preserving Apollo sites on the moon, because the human experience on the lunar surface was realized by only 12 humans 鈥� a staggeringly slim percentage of humankind.鈥� Westwood said that these brave astronauts are only with us for a brief period of time, and a generation from now, they will have passed on, no longer able to speak to their experiences and the historical significance of their achievement.
鈥淏y preserving the sites they left behind on聽, we are, in a sense, preserving not only the historical event of the first lunar landing, but the tangible memory of the Apollo astronauts,鈥� Westwood said.
Legal gray area
鈥淥ur ideas on lunar preservation were presented by our ICOMOS 鈥榗aseworker鈥� 鈥� for lack of a better word 鈥� in Helsinki a month ago,鈥� O鈥橪eary said. She and Westwood are working on getting the Tranquility Base Act in front of Congress to secure National Historic Landmark status; co-sponsors for Lundgren鈥檚 bill are still needed.
Objects at Tranquility Base are in a legal gray area. O鈥橪eary said. By treaty, however, countries own the property they have placed on the moon, but no one can own the lunar surface.
In 2010, Robert Kelso, former director of NASA鈥檚 lunar commercial services, invited O鈥橪eary to join a group of NASA scientists and engineers to help create guidelines to protect U.S. objects on the moon from future visitors. The recommendations were developed in response to a request from the Google Lunar X Prize.
Important first step
Although it聽is not legally binding,聽the paper, "NASA鈥檚 Recommendations to Space Faring Entities: How to Protect and Preserve the Historic and Scientific Value of U.S. Government Lunar Artifacts," took an important first step toward, O鈥橪eary said.
鈥淪ome of those guidelines include where these spacecraft can land and the distance at which they have to be,鈥� said O鈥橪eary. 鈥淭hey can image the objects, but we would hate for a rover that is mobile to go over the tracks that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made or to crash into some of the artifacts that are standing鈥ome of them are scientific experiments."
Robots to the moon
In May of this year, NASA and the X Prize Foundation of Playa Vista, Calif., announced that the Google Lunar X Prize is recognizing guidelines established by the space agency to protect lunar historic sites and preserve ongoing and future science on the moon.
罢丑别听聽offers $30 million to the first privately funded team to send a robot to the moon. Twenty-six teams will compete for the prize.
Meanwhile, O鈥橪eary said she plans to keep pressing forward on space heritage preservation.
鈥淚鈥檓 one of those believers that if it鈥檚 not in two years or five years or 20 years, we will go back to the moon, I think first with robotics and second with humans,鈥� O鈥橪eary said. 鈥淚f we don鈥檛 have a preservation framework in place, if we don鈥檛 have rules and ideas about what is important to preserve and how to preserve it, we really run the risk of destroying sites and artifacts."
Preserved for posterity
鈥淚n terms of the preservation of artifacts on the moon, I hope Neil鈥檚 passing will raise the priority in everyone鈥檚 mind the need to preserve this critically significant history,鈥� said Roger Launius, senior curator, Division of Space History and the Smithsonian鈥檚 National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
鈥淚 think there have been great strides made in the last couple years in that regard, but it still is at the realm of informal 鈥榬ules of the road,鈥� rather than specific protections carrying the force of law,鈥� Launius told SPACE.com.
鈥淧erhaps that will change in the next few years. Regardless of the form these efforts to preserve the record of the聽聽may take, the loss of the heroic figure prompts us to reflect on this historic occurrence and to redouble efforts to ensure that it is preserved for posterity,鈥� Launius said.
Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. He is a winner of last year's National Space Club Press Award and a past editor-in-chief of the National Space Society's Ad Astra and Space World magazines. He has written for SPACE.com since 1999.
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