‘Lunar Anthropocene’ Could Mean A Dust Cloud Covering The Moon, Say Scientists

NASA’s moon buggy” alone against the desolate lunar background during the Apollo 15 mission in Humans have become the dominant force shaping the moon’s environment, according to anthropologists and geologists at the University of Kansas, who think a new geological epoch for the moon should be declared before pollution becomes rampant. They think that objects left on the moon during NASA’s crewed Apollo missions of the late 1960s and early 1970s—including bags of human excreta, flags and golf balls—are evidence that the “Leave No Trace” concept popular on Earth does not exist on the moon. They also think that the Apollo sights should be protected.

Admitting to the “Lunar Anthropocene” would, they say, acknowledge the significant impact of human activity on the lunar surface, which began in 1959 with the USSR’s uncrewed spacecraft Luna 2. More than 100 spacecraft have since visited the moon. As more and more plans and missions are unveiled to explore the moon in the coming years, it’s time to declare the new geological epoch, according to a new paper in the journal .

Anthropocene The “Lunar Anthropocene” concept is based on the Anthropocene on Earth — the exploration of how much humans have impacted our planet. “The consensus is on Earth the Anthropocene began at some point in the past, whether hundreds of thousands of years ago or in the 1950s,” lead author Justin Holcomb, a postdoctoral researcher with the Kansas Geological Survey at the University of Kansas. “Similarly, on the moon, we argue the Lunar Anthropocene already has commenced, but we want to prevent massive damage or a delay of its recognition until we can measure a significant lunar halo caused by human activities, which would be too late.

” The increased level of human activity on the moon will likely leave a geological signature which could be called the lunar Anthropocene, said , a space archaeologist at the Flinders University of South Australia’s Department of Archaeology, in an interview. However, she thinks it’s as controversial as the Anthropocene on Earth. “It isn’t humanity as a species that has created a distinct geological period in the 20th century—it’s a small group of Western colonial, industrial nations,” said Gorman.

“The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 says that space is the province of all humanity, but again we’re looking at a subset of humanity who have the power to intervene in ‘natural’ geological and cosmic processes on the moon to create an Anthropocene. ” Apollo 15 astronaut Jim Irwin stands on the moon saluting beside an American flag. (Photo by © The authors think the concept of the Lunar Anthropocene will highlight humanity’s impact on the moon and dispel the myth that the moon is an unchanging environment.

They argue that the effect of rovers and landers is now more significant than meteoroid impacts and geological events. On March 4, 2022, a spent rocket casing hit the moon’s surface, causing a crater about 95 feet (29 meters) wide. A paper last month claims it was the remains of a Chinese rocket.

The moon got most of its craters about 4. 1 to 3. 8 billion years ago during the Late Heavy Bombardment.

This is when the Moon got most of its craters. “I call what is happening to the Moon now the “New Bombardment”—just this time it’s characterised by anthropogenic crashes,” said Gorman, who calls them “cultural craters. ” “What we have to remember with the moon is that there are no living ecologies that can bounce back as there are on Earth—many of the changes made by human activities may well be irreversible.

” She added that planetary scientists are only now just starting to understand how water cycles operate on the moon. Lunar Pollution The authors also point out that although the moon has no atmosphere, its exosphere is a delicate mix of dust and gas, which, along with the ice known to exist inside permanently shadowed areas, could be significantly disturbed by exhaust gas from spacecraft, vehicles and other human activity. “Another feature of the Lunar Anthropocene will be increased dust transport, which may even extend to creating a dust cloud orbiting around the moon,” said Gorman.

“This will affect the longevity of satellites in lunar orbit and possibly our ability to observe the moon’s surface from Earth. ” However, there’s also a need to protect sites on the moon that are already of immense historical and anthropological value—such as the Apollo landing sites and astronauts’ footprints on the moon—which could soon be vulnerable. As it stands, they have no legal or policy protections against disturbance.

“ As archaeologists, we perceive footprints on the moon as an extension of humanity’s journey out of Africa, a pivotal milestone in our species’ existence,” said Holcomb. Such “space heritage” would aim to preserve or catalog items such as rovers, flags, golf balls and footprints on the moon’s surface. Apollo 14 commander Alan B.

Shepard Jr. is seen playing golf with a javelin and a golf ball he had A common refrain among hikers, explorers and anyone else venturing into remote and undisturbed natural environments, the “Leave No Trace” concept appears not to exist on the moon, argues the scientists. After all, the Apollo landing sites contain “discarded and abandoned spacecraft components, bags of human excreta, scientific equipment, and other objects (e.

g. , flags, golf balls, photographs, religious texts),” according to the authors. Two golf balls, 12 cameras, 12 pairs of boots, a gold-plated telescope and 96 bags of urine, faeces and vomit were left on the moon by NASA astronauts, according to .

in the Hadley Plains area of the moon by David Scott, commander of the Apollo 15 mission, in 1971. .