“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for humanity.” (“This is one small step for man, one giant leap for humanity.”) With these words, American astronaut Neil Armstrong commented on his first step on the moon’s surface on July 21, 1969 at 6:54 PM Swiss time. . In the following years, five more manned missions reached Earth’s satellite before the famous Apollo program was canceled entirely in 1972.
During these three years, the US lunar missions leave behind a huge amount of waste on the moon. The lunar module landing gear, three lunar vehicles, scientific equipment and five American flags. In addition, tools, cables and cameras, soap, towels, nail scissors, a Bible, a falcon feather, two golf balls and a golden olive branch as a symbol of peace.
According to NASA, there are also plastic containers containing urine, 96 stool bags and specially designed diapers around the landing sites. Because the landers were far too narrow for a toilet and this deeply human waste had to go somewhere. They left behind everything that the astronauts did not absolutely need. By the time of the last US lunar mission in 2012, there were still 748 objects on the moon.
When Neil Armstrong spoke in 1969 about one small step for man and one giant leap for humanity, the pollution of the moon had already begun long ago. In September 1959, the Soviet space probe Lunar 2 became the first man-made object to crash onto the lunar surface. More unmanned probes were added. Some crash, others land gently, but they all have one thing in common: they became electronic waste.
According to Wikipedia, there are currently 91 larger, artificial objects on the surface of Earth’s satellite. They arrived or landed there – both planned and unplanned – during 69 lunar missions from different countries.
The 14-ton third stages of the Saturn rockets that carried the Apollo capsules to the moon are still active. The last piece of lunar debris for the time being was added in January 2024: the Japanese probe ‘SLIM’, which landed on the moon, is operational again after a days-long power outage – but at some point this will also become lunar trash.
In addition to the ‘SLIM’ probe and the two Japanese rovers LEV-1 and LEV2, there are only four other human objects on the moon that are still in use: the rover of China’s Chang’e 4 probe, the retroreflectors for the Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment (LLR) from the Apollo program and that of Lunochod 1 and 2.
Most terrestrial objects are on the far side of the moon, but some are also on the far side. For example, the Chinese space probe Chang'e-4 from 2019 or Ranger 4, the first American spacecraft to reach the surface of the moon (1962).
In total, about 200 tons of scrap metal are currently being brought to the moon's surface by humans. By comparison, the US Apollo and Soviet Luna missions and the Chinese Chang'e 5 spacecraft together returned only about 384 kg of moon rock to Earth.
There has been only one waste disposal so far: the Apollo 12 landing site in November 1969 was chosen so that the astronauts could remove parts of the Surveyor 3 space probe, which had landed two years earlier, and return them to Earth. Although NASA is planning crewed lunar missions again from 2025 as part of 'Artemis 2', no further return operations are currently planned. It would be very interesting to see what happened to the decay of the moon, which is only exposed to the extreme temperature contrasts of lunar and lunar night and to the unfiltered cosmic rays.
Researchers are particularly interested in the 96 stool bags of the Apollo astronauts. They could provide answers to the question of whether cosmic rays killed the organisms in the feces or not. If the microbes survived, it would be a sensation. This could be an indication that life once came to Earth from space via an asteroid.
Source: Blick
I am Ross William, a passionate and experienced news writer with more than four years of experience in the writing industry. I have been working as an author for 24 Instant News Reporters covering the Trending section. With a keen eye for detail, I am able to find stories that capture people’s interest and help them stay informed.
