A New Mexico State University professor said she wants to help preserve the archaeological site on the moon from the first landing, so that generations to come will remember that important history.
The United States has Federal Preservation Laws that protect sites on Earth, but the site on the moon should be no different, and that is exactly what two former New Mexico State University students want to prove.
In 1999, Beth O'Leary, a professor at NMSU with a doctorate in anthropology, was teaching a Cultural Resource Management class. O'Leary was discussing the laws that protect archaeological sites when a student, Ralph Gibson, asked whether or not these laws could apply on the moon.
This sparked the beginning of the Lunar Legacies project, which began in 2000 and ended in 2001.
O'Leary said when the Apollo 11 spacecraft traveled to the moon in 1969, there were a number of artifacts the astronauts left behind, including the footprints made by astronaut Neil Armstrong and the United States flag, which was stuck into the moon's surface.
"There are no forces of erosion on the moon so the footprints are still there," O'Leary said. "What will preserve these sites, if we don't put them into play and figure out laws to protect them? We want to preserve heritage for this generation and the generations to come."
"The goal of the project is for the United States and international and historical preservation as well as the community to recognize significant sites off the Earth," O'Leary said.
Gibson, along with another NMSU student, went on to research the project. O'Leary was the Space Heritage expert in archaeological sites.
Anthropologists and planetary scientists are among those who reviewed the proposal for the project, before it became funded.
The students received funding from the New Mexico Spacegrant Consortium, which is an organization that supports students and faculty who are doing research that is related to NASA.
Director of the New Mexico Spacegrant Consortium, Patricia Hynes, said the students researched the Apollo 11 landing and mapped all the artifacts left behind.
They created a 3-dimensional map as well as a catalog of the artifacts. Those artifacts are named and listed on the Lunar Legacies Web site at spacegrant.nmsu.edu/lunarlegacies. The researchers found there were many things left on the moon.
"Everything from screwdrivers to footprints and everything in between," Hynes said.
The students were also funded to go the Lunar Research Institute in Houston, Texas as well as the NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The LRI spoke with NASA and told them what a great job the students were doing.
"It turns out that the students had actually done a better job at cataloging the artifacts and locating them on the map than the Lunar Research Institute," Hynes said.
"This whole research project is very important for the future of space travel," O'Leary said.
"We recognize that we should preserve history on the moon because those artifacts will have impact in the future," O'Leary said.
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