NASA recently released a set of guidelines on protecting the artifacts that are already on the Moon. They say that this is in recognition of the increasing capabilities of private organizations and other nations that may be able to reach the lunar surface. These are not a set of rules or laws set by NASA, but just recommendations so that future lunar explorers can carefully plan their missions to not interfere with the sites of previous missions.

I feel that this is a great step undertaken by NASA since it confronts issues that will definitely come up as more organizations develop the means of reaching the Lunar surface. It also sets a precedent and takes steps towards the possibility of declaring rules on how the lunar surface should be protected. These guidelines answer some of my concerns from before. They provide some guidance on how certain interesting and historically important areas of the Moon can be preserved for future generations.

It does raise a few more questions, though. Do you think these guidelines are very restricting or too loose? Should other organizations also adopt similar guidelines for their missions? And once there are a large number of lunar missions, how do we say if a certain project is going to be historically significant or worth preserving?

by: Abhimat G.

Thursday May-31-2012