According to Science, by the end of this month NASA is expected to come up with a set of “recommendations” for spacecraft and astronauts visiting the “U.S. government property on the moon.” Of course, these recommendations will not be legally binding as the 1967 Outer Space Treaty makes it clear that the lunar surface has no owner.

THE PURPOSE: NASA's "recommendations" of no-fly zones are for preserving and protecting Apollo missions' historical sites and artefacts. AFP

Despite the lack of ownership, NASA is hopeful that other countries will respect the U.S. sentiments. Incidentally, the restriction list contains more than the historical sites. For instance, the list includes studying discarded food and abandoned astronaut faeces.

Study of bacteria

Though these restrictions may appear preposterous, there are clear scientific compulsions to collect and study them. For example, studying the discarded food will reveal the viability of bacteria on the moon and, if present, how they have mutated and survived after years of exposure to solar radiation.

It is worthwhile to remember that all scientific experiments conducted on board during space travel are of a few days duration and pale in comparison with decades of constant exposure to several stressful lunar conditions/environment.

Similarly, there are other scientific compulsions to study the artefacts left behind on the moon. For instance, any metallic objects would reveal how these materials have degraded after prolonged exposure to solar radiation and other peculiar conditions prevailing on the moon.

What prompted the space agency to act was the Google Lunar X prize for those landing a robot that moves 500 metres and sends images from the moon. Precise landing near the Apollo sites would get them more money.

Very recently, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured the sharpest images ever taken from space of the Apollo 12, 14 and 17 landing sites. The paths made when the astronauts explored the lunar surface have been very clearly captured by the images.

According to NASA, at the Apollo 17 site, the tracks laid down by the lunar rover are clearly visible, along with the last foot trails left on the Moon. The images also show where the astronauts placed some of the scientific instruments that provided the first insights into the Moon’s environment and interior.

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/article2432999.ece

New images show the sharpest pictures yet of lunar rover tracks and human footprints crisscrossing the thin soil at the surface of the moon from the Apollo 12, 14 and 17 landings. These include the last tracks made on the moon by Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972. Both the dual rover tracks and the footprints are clearly visible in the images, which were captured and beamed back by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter (LRO).

The twists and turns of the last tracks left by humans on the moon mark the moon's surface in this image of the Apollo 17 site. Photo by NASA/Goddard/ASU.

“We can retrace the astronauts’ steps with greater clarity to see where they took lunar samples,” Noah Petro, a lunar geologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md told NASA. Petro is a member of the LRO project science team.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/09/-new-images-show-the-1.html

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