The Trash We've Left on the Moon

[morningfog]

Earlier this week, two probes that had spent the past year orbiting the moon for NASA's GRAIL mission slammed into the lunar surface, destroying themselves and their communications connection to Earth.

None of this was an accident: Crash-landings like this are a typical method of bringing unmanned lunar missions -- and unmanned planetary missions in general -- to a close. This means, however, that NASA's typical method of mission conclusion involves, inevitably, leaving debris strewn on planets across our solar system. And it means that the moon, in particular, currently hosts nearly 400,000 pounds of man-made material. In epic terms, the lunar surface bears human footprints that are as figurative as they are literal, objects of earthly origin that have found their final resting place in the most otherworldly mausoleum imaginable. In less epic terms: We regularly leave trash on the moon.

Most of that debris is accounted for by the wreckage of spacecraft -- more than 70 vehicles in all, their remains scattered at intervals over the lunar surface. The rest of it, however, is accounted for by smaller pieces of detritus, objects jettisoned because they had served their purpose, and then outlived their utility, to their respective missions: geological tools, bodily waste, solemn monuments to accomplishment and sacrifice. Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong alone left more than 100 items on the Sea of Tranquility, some of those being shovels and rakes, one being the plaque announcing to the world -- and the worlds beyond it -- that "we came in peace for all mankind."

So. With that in mind, here is a rough (and only partial) inventory of the stuff mankind has left on the moon:

• more than 70 spacecraft, including rovers, modules, and crashed orbiters
• 5 American flags
• 2 golf balls
• 12 pairs of boots
• TV cameras
• film magazines
• 96 bags of urine, feces, and vomit
• numerous Hasselbad cameras and accessories
• several improvised javelins
• various hammers, tongs, rakes, and shovels
• backpacks
• insulating blankets
• utility towels
• used wet wipes
• personal hygiene kits
• empty packages of space food
• a photograph of Apollo 16 astronaut Charles Duke's family
• a feather from Baggin, the Air Force Academy's mascot falcon, used to conduct Apollo 15's famous "hammer-feather drop" experiment
• a small aluminum sculpture, a tribute to the American and Soviet "fallen astronauts" who died in the space race -- left by the crew of Apollo 15
• a patch from the never-launched Apollo 1 mission, which ended prematurely when flames engulfed the command module during a 1967 training exercise, killing three U.S. astronauts
• a small silicon disk bearing goodwill messages from 73 world leaders, and left on the moon by the crew of Apollo 11
• a silver pin, left by Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean
• a medal honoring Soviet cosmonauts Vladimir Komarov and Yuri Gagarin
• a cast golden olive branch left by the crew of Apollo 11

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/12/the-trash-weve-left-on-the-moon/266465/

[Agnosticsherbet]

1. A future Indiana Jones will excavate the moon...

Will he or she evade the traps?

[thelordofhell]

2. Don't forget Alice

Bang......Zoom!!

[customerserviceguy]

3. Is there any doubt

that by the time we start to actively inhabit the moon that these things will be valuable artifacts and souvenirs that could be sold on Earth? They may even help finance lunar colonization.

Yep, even the puke bags. I would imagine that even the tiniest leaks in the bags would have rendered the contents freeze dried by this point. Bottle collectors love to find old outhouse sites, they often provide liquor bottles that someone wanted to hide in a most effective way, and they usually find a soft landing at the bottom of a backyard privy. The surrounding muck turns safe after a few decades, and further cushions the bottles from impact.

[morningfog]

4. I have a modest collection of old recovered bottles that were found and retrieved

from an old dump site on a large estate. Years ago, we were digging a trench to install an irrigation system when we hit the dump site. I took crates of bottle home. The collection has dwindled significantly, but moved from house to house and across the country.

[lastlib]

6. much of the plastic would be significantly degraded...

...by the strong ultraviolet radiation that the moon is subjected to; more likely than freeze-dried, the liquid stuff will be boiled away, and the remaining solids will be cooked down to their most basic chemicals. The American flags (which were nylon, IIRC) are probably sun-bleached into oblivion by now, as are a lot of the other artifacts.

[customerserviceguy]

8. True

but they'd still be a part of history. Things brought up from the bottom of the ocean that sunk centuries ago doesn't look so good, either, but they're still collectable.

[pokerfan]

5. M-O-O-N, that spells poop!

[Posteritatis]

7. "several improvised javelins" - hee. (nt)

[n2doc]

9. I knew a couple who worked with the Hopi Indians

Back in 1969, after the first moon landing, they were at third mesa for a Kachina Dance. Now the Kachinas are considered to be living Gods, and adjust their behavior according to what has been going on in the world. The Moon Kachina brought a big bag of trash over to them and dumped it next to them, scolding them (they were the only whites there) for messing up their place.