Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: NASA

Earth’s Moon has been selected as a site to preserve artifacts from robotic and human exploration, such as the Apollo 11 lunar landing site within the Sea of Tranquility – home of the first off-Earth footprints by humans planted there in 1969.

The World Monuments Fund announced today 25 new sites on their 2025 World Monuments Watch. The locations represent 29 countries across five continents…and now the Moon.  

International agreements

The addition of the Moon on the 2025 Watch is a step that advocates for international agreements and protection of lunar heritage sites.

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has used its high-powered camera system to provide looks at the Apollo 11 landing site. The remnants of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s historic first steps on the surface are seen as dark paths around the Lunar Module (LM), Lunar Ranging RetroReflector (LRRR) and Passive Seismic Experiment Package (PSEP), as well as leading to and from Little West crater.
Image credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

Indeed, the achievement by Apollo moonwalkers acknowledges the movement of our ancestors out of Africa more than 300,000 years ago and into the solar system. 

For details on the declaration by the World Monuments Fund, go to my new Space.com story — “Moon selected as historical preservation site to protect lunar heritage” – at:

https://www.space.com/the-universe/moon/moon-selected-as-historical-preservation-site-to-protect-lunar-heritage