Sacred Places

There are places in the universe that humans consider sacred. How do we balance respect for this with the need to utilise resources and build?

At six places on the near side of the Moon, there lie small platforms, covered in gold foil. The descent stages of the Apollo lunar modules, undisturbed by Man for over half a century. Around them the experiments and waste bags left behind, and each one accompanied by a flag. Perhaps, though, these sites will be visited once again.

The only landing site on another planet revisited by subsequent missions was the Surveyor 3 probe, which Apollo 12 landed next to 3 years later

Pete Conrad inspecting Surveyor 3. Credit: NASA

The probe was damaged by the regolith kicked up by the descent engine of Intrepid when it landed. Pieces of it were taken for analysis back on Earth, to see how the materials had fared in the lunar environment for several years.

How would Americans feel if a private or foreign spacecraft landed close enough to the descent stage of Apollo 11’s Eagle to spray it with regolith? How would they react if they saw a astronaut bounding through Neil Armstrong’s footprints, cutting…