Mixed Opinions about the Lunar X Prize
On July 20, 1969 human kind managed to do something incredible: land on the moon. Neil Armstrong was the first human being who put his foot on our natural satellite.
Despite of the evolution of technology, many have predicted that we will not land on the moon anytime soon. The robots, on the other hand, will. There is an ongoing competition in order to send a robot to the Moon, sponsored by Google. The competition is called Lunar X Prize, and the team which will send the first rover on the moon will win $20 million. If they will manage to take a picture of the remains left by the Apollo 11 crew in 1969, they will win an additional $5 million. There are lots of people who are waiting with their fingers crossed for the end of the competition, and not because they will win money, but because they want to see if the landing was a hoax or a reality. There are many people who doubt that the landing ever took place, and they are convinced that when the rover will land on the Moon, it will not be able to observe the mankind structures. Of course, the ones who believe in the landing have stated that the Moon is too big, and that the rover might land in a different place. However, the exact location of the structures left behind by the crew, such as the lunar module, is known, and $5 million is a very large sum of money.
Some have stated that this is the most important goal of the competition: photographing the remains of the first expedition, and not because they want to prove anything, but because they want to re-bring the excitement associated with the moon landing. There are many who criticize the contest, as they say that the lunar archeological site might be in jeopardy. For example the rover might come too close to the remains, and it might ruin the footprints left behind by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. If such a thing would happen, then they would be lost forever. William Pomerantz, who is the director of space projects for the X Prize Foundation, has stated that such a thing is possible, but he said that this is the way in which things work. We as humans have always been interested in history, and we always wanted to revisit the places and the things which connect us to it, even if that meant putting those things in danger. We have opened pyramids in order to examine them, even if we risked destroying something inside of them. The same thing happens with lunar expedition: the desire to revisit probably on of the most important places from our history is too great, and Pomerantz believes that the risk is worth taking. Of course, there are many who believe that the footprints and all the other treasures from the moon do not exist, and they are convinced that they are being used in order to stop the flight from taking place.
The numbers of archeologists which are concerned about the state of the artifacts are on the rise. Some of them have stated that these artifacts are the most important from history, way more important than the pyramids, the first flight, and so on. Each movement made by the two astronauts has been recorded on the moon’s ground, and it will be there forever, as the footprints do not suffer from erosion. There is no wind, water, or atmosphere to damage them, and it would a tragedy to be ruined by the people. Dirk H.R. Spennemann is an expert in protecting the technological artifacts, and he believes that the site from the Moon where the lunar module has landed should be protected. He believes that they should be opened when we have the technology required for hovering above them, otherwise we would ruin them. There are 22 teams which have registered for the competition, as the registry has been closed on December 31, 2010. There are many who believe that this is just the beginning, and that in the future there will be lots of independent companies that will make the trip. The same thing happened with the Titanic, as everybody considered it to be lost forever, until Robert Ballard found it at the bottom of the ocean. Since then, numerous expeditions have been made to the place where the ship is located. The same thing might happen with the moon.
The majority of the experts are convinced that it will be very difficult to create universal rules regarding the moon landing. First of all, the planets, the moon included, are the property of the entire world, and one country or one agency can not impose rules for the entire world. No one has rights over the moon, and they can not impose certain conditions and restrictions. This would mean that all the countries from the world would have to sing a treaty, and it is very unlikely that such a thing would happen. It has been established that there are more than 100 items on the moon, including the footprints, the boots left by Aldrin, a laser ranging retroreflector, and so on. They left all of those things there prior to the take off, as they needed to be as light as possible in order to fly from the moon without any difficulties. Some have stated that the Tranquility Base should be considered a National Historic Landmark, but the idea was rejected by the National Park Service. The service stated that they can not do that, because they do not own the moon, so they do not have jurisdiction over it. A NASA lawyer has stated that such a thing would be impossible, because then the entire world would believe that they are trying to claim ownership of the moon. If they would do that, then they would violate the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which represents a land grab, or the action of taking ownership of a certain location from the moon.
The location has been added to the list of archaeological sites which are preserved by the state of New Mexico. Of course, this does not mean anything, as the action does not have legal value, but it has a symbolic one. The officials from New Mexico hope that through their actions they will encourage other states to do the same, and that might make a difference. There are many who believe that it will not matter, because even if all the states would do this, and even if the entire country would do it, that would not change things. If one single country from the world would refuse to sign the agreement, then the region would not be protected. This would not be the first time when an expedition to a former landing area would be conducted. Alan Bean and Pete Conrad in the Apollo 12 mission visited the area where the robotic Surveyor 3 spacecraft landed in 1967. They had the task of collecting certain things from the spacecraft and to bring them home, in order for the experts to analyze the effects of the moon conditions on them. The researchers believe that the examination of the robotic sites from the moon is more than welcomed, as they believe that lots of things could be discovered by examining them.
For example there are numerous USSR landing sites, and they could be studied in order to find out more about the technology which they used, to see if they are different than the American ones. The American ones could be examined by whoever desires as well. Probably one of the most important USSR lunar modules is Luna 15, which crashed on the moon in 1969. The Soviet Union stated at that time that the module had the task of collecting rocks from the moon, but there are many who still believe that the module had a different intention. All those questions could be answered by analyzing the lunar modules. Many believe that the rules regarding the ownership over the moon will remain the same in the following years as well, as it will be impossible to reach an agreement. The rules for the Lunar X competition clearly state that the team should proceed with caution in order not to cause damage to the artifacts which are located there. However, that does not mean that the teams could not make mistakes, which would lead to the damaging of those modules. There are many who believe that the teams will do whatever they want once they reach the moon, and that the only thing which could prevent them from doing so would be the negative publicity from the media. There are many who believe that the rules of the competition are too few and that they are too vague. They are afraid that because of this the teams will have too much freedom once they reach the moon.
However, there are many who believe that the teams will not be able to reach the moon anytime soon, and that all the worries associated with the mission are in vain. William “Red” Whittaker, who is a professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, and who is one of the contestants has stated that he will use very powerful lenses in order to take pictures of the artifacts. That is if he will manage to land the rover on the moon, that is. By doing so he will protect the artifacts and he hopes that the other teams will do the same thing as well. He does not want to damage the artifacts, and he hopes that the other teams will be interested in protecting them as well. However, it seems that the majority of the people are excited about the competition, and about the possibility of a second moon landing. They believe that this proves that we are still interested in history and in the events which took place in the past. They hope that the artifacts will not be damaged, but in the same time they can not wait to see the possible pictures. Probably one of the most important questions is: what would happen if the artifacts will not be found?
