Mikhail Kotov drew attention to the problem that goes hand in hand with the conquest of new territories and cosmic bodies
Quite a lot has been said about the Moon lately. Several states and private companies are planning their lunar missions at once, there are ideas in the future to create automatic or visited lunar bases, and then gradually colonize the Earth's natural satellite. I think that in the coming years the process of lunar exploration will become even more widespread.
There are enough reasons for this. From the historically inherent desire for expansion of mankind to the simple opportunity to earn money from lunar fossils, space tourism is still in its infancy, the creation of information processing centers and data centers located in lunar caves.
However, on the eve of the International Moon Day and the 55th anniversary of the first manned landing on this space body in the history of mankind, I would like to remind you about the related problem, which is worth thinking about now, even if it does not seem too serious today. The gradual pollution of the Moon by a variety of debris.
Mastering with consequences
According to scientists, currently there are more than 180 tons of various objects on the surface of the Moon — the consequences of human activity. The main part consists of various kinds of automatic spacecraft: equipment designed to reach the lunar surface, artificial satellites brought out of orbit, landing stages of manned spacecraft, spent stages of launch vehicles.
The very first "pollution" can be called the Soviet automatic interplanetary station Luna-2, which on September 14, 1959 almost crashed into an Earth satellite at a speed of 3.3 km/s. The moon impact was confirmed by the termination of radio communication with the station and a number of observations from Soviet and foreign observatories. When Luna-2 fell, a crater was formed, according to various estimates, with a diameter of 15 to 130 m.
The station itself most likely broke into a large number of fragments. The same fate was to befall the two metal pennants inside its body, made at the Leningrad Mint. The stainless steel pennants (most similar to footballs) were made up of 72 pentagonal segments: 12 regular—shaped ones with the inscription "USSR" and the coat of arms of the country stamped on their surface, as well as 60 irregular—shaped ones with a five-pointed star, the inscription "USSR" and the launch date (September 13, 1959). If parts of these pennants could be returned to Earth, they would clearly become expensive "souvenirs".
American contribution
A significant amount of debris was left on the Moon as a result of six American manned Apollo missions. First of all, these are the landing stages of the modules that remained on the surface of the Earth's natural satellite — each of them weighs about 2 tons. Separately, it is worth noting rovers (four-wheeled transport moon rovers) for the movement of people on the surface of the Moon (developed by Boeing) for three missions. There will be, of course, small things — flags, tripods and tools.
There was also biological contamination. The spacecraft of the Apollo missions were not equipped with toilets. To meet their natural needs, the crew members used plastic bags and wet wipes collected in a large garbage bag. It was his crew of Apollo 11, which landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969, that threw the satellite onto the surface from the lander before landing. There is no information whether astronauts of other missions have done this.
But the crew of Apollo 15 deliberately left the first monument, a work of art, on the surface of the Moon. This is an aluminum sculpture depicting an astronaut in a spacesuit lying on his back. Mission Commander David Scott installed the "Fallen Astronaut" in memory of eight US astronauts and six Soviet cosmonauts who had died by that time for one reason or another. The installation by the Belgian artist and engraver Paul van Heydonk is still the only work of art on the Moon today.
By the way, but the only action to clean up lunar debris also belongs to American astronauts. Although this is more of a clean-up for the collection of scrap metal. On November 19, 1969, the module of the Apollo 12 spacecraft landed near the Serveyer-3 spacecraft, launched by the United States 2.5 years earlier. Astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean walked to this small station and removed a television camera and 10 kg of other parts from it (which they were able to unscrew in such difficult conditions). It was part of an experiment to test the effects of cosmic radiation and lunar climate on materials. You can see the TV camera returned from the Moon at the exposition of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington.
Nevertheless, according to my calculations, it was the Americans who made the biggest contribution to the littering of the Earth's natural satellite. The most massive parts are the S-IVB stages of the Saturn 5 launch vehicle - each weighing about 13-14 tons and one per manned mission. At the same time, the steps fell uncontrollably and therefore, most likely, broke into many fragments during the fall.
Is there a problem or not
According to modern scientific ideas, the Moon is lifeless, and therefore the garbage that is there does not bring any special problems to anyone or anything alive. He lies, they say, quietly and does not bother himself. In addition, much of the above also cannot be completely classified as garbage — in many ways these are artifacts of significant historical value, like the Soviet "Moon Rovers", which set many records at the time.
Is it worth thinking about lunar debris then?
In my opinion, history has already shown that in the absence of rules and a regulatory system, humanity tends to ignore the issue as long as it has the opportunity and this does not seriously interfere. There are many examples both on Earth, where the problem with ordinary debris and microplastics is acute, and in space, where low Earth orbit will experience serious problems due to space debris particles in the coming decades.
Currently, the priorities of space agencies have nothing to do with the very likely future problem of debris on the Moon. It is not necessary to expect that in the near future — even if we talk about a decade, or even more than one — scientists will seriously talk about this. But I am convinced that at least it is worth remembering. After all, it is clean not where they clean, but where they do not litter.
