According to Hertzfeld and Pace (2013),
last summer a bill was introduced in the US House of Representatives,
H.R. 2617, called the Apollo Lunar Landing Legacy Act. The bill was
sponsored by Reps. Donna Edwards (D-MD) and Eddie Bernice Johnson
(D-TX). Hertzfeld and Pace write that “In essence, it proposes to
designate the Apollo landing sites and U.S. equipment on the Moon as
a U.S. National Park with jurisdiction under the auspices of the U.S.
Department of Interior.”
The article explains the very real
reasons why one might be concerned about protecting the historical
artifacts on the moon, with increasing space activity by other nations, as
well as increasing involvement by the private sector in space
operations. However, the authors take pains to explain that the above
law is a bad idea. It violates international law such as the U.N.
Outer Space Treaty of 1969, and oh, the proposed bill is
“unenforceable”. Hertzfeld and Pace go on to propose addressing
the legitimate concerns of the bill's sponsors by international
treaties, rather than unilateral U.S. legislation. I find Hertzfeld
and Pace's arguments persuasive. Writing for the Huffington Post,
Leonard David points out that the watchdog group Citizens Against
Government Waste gave the sponsors of the bill a “Porkers of the
Month” award “for straying so far from reality's orbit, wasting
the taxpayer's money on the paper and ink on which H.R. 2617 is
written, and engaging in sheer 'lunarcy'.” Sounds about right to
me.
We don't do politics on this blog unless it intersects with science policy. As a matter of public policy then, DTLR
opposes H.R. 2617. The bill is well intentioned, but there are far better ways to achieve its goals.
Reference
Henry R. Herzfeld and Scott N. Pace,
2013: International cooperation on human lunar heritage. Science,
342: 1049-1050.
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