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Dennis Donovan

(29,950 posts)
Thu Jan 16, 2025, 09:02 AM Jan 16

The Guardian: Moon added to list of threatened cultural sites for first time

The Guardian - Moon added to list of threatened cultural sites for first time

Potential looting and commercial trips pose risk to artefacts left by lunar landings, says World Monuments Fund

Lanre Bakare Arts and culture correspondent
Thu 16 Jan 2025 07.00 EST



The moon has been placed on a list of threatened heritage sites, owing to fears of potential looting and destruction caused by planned commercial trips.

The watchlist of the World Monuments Fund (WMF) usually includes vulnerable cultural sites on Earth. This year’s selection – the first since 2022 – includes Qhapaq Ñan, a pre-Hispanic Andean road system. Antakya in Turkey and the Noto peninsula in Japan, which were damaged by earthquakes, also made the list.

Bénédicte de Montlaur, the president and chief executive of WMF, said the moon was included among the 25 sites because of “mounting risks amidst accelerating lunar activities”, which were, in the WMF’s opinion, “undertaken without adequate preservation protocols”.

SpaceX launched two lunar landers on Wednesday to conduct research for future missions. Only five countries – the US, China, India, Japan and the former Soviet Union – have successfully landed vehicles on the moon since the 1960s.

Private trips to the lunar surface are expected after Nasa’s Artemis III mission, scheduled for mid-2027, makes the first crewed touchdown since the early 1970s. These visits and other government-funded missions are the main cause for concern for the WMF. There is particular anxiety about tourists disturbing sites such as the footprints left by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

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The Guardian: Moon added to list of threatened cultural sites for first time (Original Post) Dennis Donovan Jan 16 OP
Because... 2naSalit Jan 16 #1
THIS malaise Jan 16 #2
Unlike any other... 2naSalit Jan 16 #6
The wealthiest are doing this shit berniesandersmittens Jan 16 #3
Monkeys will fling their poop across the universe! HAB911 Jan 16 #4
Poor Moon Kid Berwyn Jan 16 #5
We spilled a bunch of tartigrades there when one of the recent landers crashed. Basso8vb Jan 16 #7
Well, that ends my plan EYESORE 9001 Jan 16 #8
The Moon is an entire world localroger Jan 16 #9
THEY'RE GOING TO BLOW UP THE MOON!!!111!!!!11!!!!! Tommy Carcetti Jan 16 #10
I can see the giant Coca Cola logo already... WarGamer Jan 16 #11

berniesandersmittens

(12,091 posts)
3. The wealthiest are doing this shit
Thu Jan 16, 2025, 09:27 AM
Jan 16

Trashing Earth just doesn't give them the same thrill anymore. Gotta find some new place with their new toys to abuse.

Greed is trashy.

localroger

(3,748 posts)
9. The Moon is an entire world
Thu Jan 16, 2025, 02:24 PM
Jan 16

It's not exactly like a traffic jam is forming up there. The surface of the Moon is comparable in size to the entire land area of the Earth (Earth having oceans, and the smaller Moon not). The only way someone is going to mess with Neil and Buzz's footprints is if they very carefully plan to do so. At that, realistically what they would be trashing up is... the trash we left last time we went there. Recall that one of the first popular fictional treatments of a return to the Moon was the 70's movie-then-TV-series Salvage One, about "a junk man who had a dream" to go to the Moon, get all the garbage Nasa left lying around up there, bring it back and sell it.

Tommy Carcetti

(43,830 posts)
10. THEY'RE GOING TO BLOW UP THE MOON!!!111!!!!11!!!!!
Thu Jan 16, 2025, 02:27 PM
Jan 16

That's a throwback for DU days of yore.

(And also coincidentally a Mr. Show skit.)

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