Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Apollo 11 footprint on the Moon.
Image credit: NASA

It is tagged as “planetary geoarchaeology” – the study of how cultural and natural processes on Earth’s Moon, on Mars, and across the solar system may be altering, preserving or destroying the material record of space exploration.

In a recent paper appearing in the journal Geoarchaeology, tools and methods are being advocated to study the movement of people into space as a natural extension of human migration here on Earth.

Illustration of NASA astronauts on the lunar south pole carrying out early work to establish an Artemis Base Camp. Credit: NASA

Protect space heritage

The research is led by Justin Holcomb, a postdoctoral researcher at the Kansas Geological Survey, based at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

Holcomb and colleagues explain that the material record that presently exists on the Moon is quickly becoming at risk of being destroyed if proper attention isn’t paid during today’s fast-paced era of private and governmental space activities.

“We’re trying to draw attention to the preservation, study and documentation of space heritage because I do think there’s a risk to this heritage on the Moon,” Holcomb said in a university statement. “The United States is trying to get boots on the Moon again, and China is as well. We’ve already had at least four countries accidentally crash into the Moon recently. There are a lot of accidental crashes and not a lot of protections right now.”

iSpace lunar crash site.
Image credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

While there’s need to protect space heritage like those related to the U.S. Apollo missions, Holcomb said that other countries also deserve to have their records protected.

Out of Africa…into space

The idea of planetary geoarchaeological as a new subfield has its roots in the university’s Odyssey Archaeological Research Program.

Odyssey’s goal is to search for evidence of the earliest people to inhabit the Central Great Plains and western portions of the Midwest, and to gain a better understanding of the late Pleistocene and early Holocene paleoenvironments that affected those people.

Odyssey is directed by one of Holcomb’s co-authors, Rolfe Mandel, a university senior scientist and distinguished professor in the Department of Anthropology.

Time traveling here on Earth. Odyssey program.
Image credit: Kansas Alumni magazine

“Human migration out of Africa may have occurred as early as 150,000 years ago, and space travel represents the latest stage of that journey,” Mandel said in the university statement. “Although the Odyssey program is focused on documenting the earliest evidence of people in the Americas, the next frontier for similar research will be in space,” said Mandel.

The first photo from the surface of Mars shows one of the Viking 1 lander’s footpads.
Credit: NASA/JPL

Material footprint

Planetary geoarchaeology can be applied to practically every type of extraterrestrial environment, the research paper explains, provided humans have left behind a measurable record.

There is a growing need, the paper adds, to understand the types of unique site formation processes capable of altering, destroying, or preserving the archaeological record known as space heritage.

Sand trap for Spirit Mars Exploration Rover.
Image credit: NASA

“We feel that all material currently existing on extraterrestrial surfaces is space heritage and worthy of protection,” Holcomb said. “However, some sites, such as the very first footprints on the Moon at Tranquility Base or the first lander on Mars, Viking 1, represent the material footprint of a long history of migration.”

Holcomb points to NASA’s Spirit rover. It became stuck in Martian sand in 2009 and died there in 2010. It risks being completely covered by encroaching sand dunes.

“As planetary geoarchaeologists, we can predict when the rover will be buried, talk about what will happen when it’s buried and make sure it’s well documented before it’s lost,” said Holcomb.

Leftover legacy

How about the graveyard of orbital debris that now encircles the Earth?

Clutter in the cosmos.
Credit: Used with permission: Melrae Pictures/Space Junk 3D

What many call “trash” — bits of material currently in orbit or strewn across the surfaces of the Moon and Mars — Holcomb and other planetary geoarchaeology advocates see that leftover legacy falling under case-by-case decision making.

As for next steps, Holcomb and his research colleagues suggest tracking our material record as it continues to expand, both to preserve the earliest record but also to keep a check on humankind’s impact on extraterrestrial environments.

Credit: For All Moonkind

Perhaps geoarchaeologists should be included in future NASA missions to ensure the protection and safety of space heritage.

For now, geoarchaeologists on Earth can lay the foundation for planetary geoarcheology, Holcomb explains, including support of laws to protect and preserve space heritage, studying the effects extraterrestrial ecosystems have on items space missions leave behind and conducting international discussions regarding space heritage preservation and protection issues.

For more information on the paper — “Planetary geoarchaeology as a new frontier in archaeological science: Evaluating site formation processes on Earth’s Moon” – go to:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/gea.21966