Excerpt from the 2019 Cultural Considerations Working Group White Paper
There are a number of artifacts and artworks that are actually on the Moon as well as a number of art projects that have been proposed or are in their planning stages.
In addition to all the equipment and hardware that humans took or sent to the Moon and used to gather samples or otherwise implement experiments, there are a number of items significant only for their cultural value.
Luna 2, the first human-made object to reach the Moon, included a number of medallions imprinted with the Soviet Union and the year, 1959.
The Apollo 11 astronauts left behind a disc containing messages of peace from more than 70 nations, a golden olive branch, an Apollo 1 mission patch and medals honoring Yuri Gagarin and Vladimir Komarov.
It is rumored that the Apollo 12 crew left behind the Moon Museum—a small ceramic tile with drawings by American artists Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Claus Oldenberg, John Chamberlain, Forrest Myers and David Novros.
The Apollo 15 astronauts placed an aluminum sculpture measuring 8.5 cm in height and a plaque onto the dusty surface of a small crater near the lunar rover. Called The Fallen Astronaut, it is a small human shaped figurine designed by Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonk. It was intended to commemorate those astronauts and cosmonauts who had lost their lives in the furtherance of space exploration. The plaque was designed and made separately by astronaut David Scott. Van Hoeydonck was given a set of design restrictions to which he adhered, namely that the sculpture: 1) was to be both lightweight and sturdy, capable of withstanding the temperature extremes of the Moon; and 2) could not be identifiably male or female, nor of any identifiable ethnic group. The Apollo 15 astronauts and the artist had a mutual agreement that this event would not be commercialized in any way, which resulted in some controversy in subsequent years.
Israel’s spacecraft Beresheet, which crashed into the lunar surface on April 11, 2019 while attempting a soft landing, had as part of its payload, an Arch Mission discs containing all of Wikipedia and other works.
Planned for launch in 2020, Carnegie Mellon University is hoping to send another museum to the Moon aboard a commercial lander developed by Astrobotic. The project, called The MoonArk, is designed as a gift of life and hope to future humans and is configured to cause people to ponder: how the Moon stirs the tides; the growth patterns of life; the rhythms of society, and how the Moon always continues to pull us further into the heavens. Under the leadership of artist Lowry Burgess and with more than 300 artists involved, the MoonArk is a highly collaborative and massively integrated sculpture that poetically sparks wonderment through integrating the arts, humanities, sciences, and technologies.
There are more than a hundred sites on the Moon with evidence of human activity. The sites contain materials from the European Space Agency, Japan, India, Russia, China, and the United States. Not only do these sites contain ongoing experiments, they hold invaluable data. For example, engineers are hoping to examine these materials to determine how they have fared after continuous exposure to the elevated radiation levels on the Moon. Along with scientific equipment, robotic landers and other objects left behind to lighten the load for the return home, there are a number of memorial and tributary items.
But perhaps most important, these varied objects, and their position on the lunar surface, alone can reveal the true story of humanity’s history on the Moon. A chronicle that celebrates the persistence and passion of hundreds and of thousands of scientists, engineers and aviators throughout human history who have supported the effort to “slip the surly bonds of Earth” and reach the stars.
Here on Earth, the international community identifies important sites by placing them on the World Heritage List, created by a convention signed by 193 nations. In this way, the international community has agreed to protect things like the cave paintings in Lascaux, France and Stonehenge, a ring of standing stones in Wiltshire, England.
There are no equivalent laws or internationally recognized regulations or even principles that protect the Apollo 11 landing site, known as Tranquility Base, or any other sites on the Moon or in space. There is no law against running over the first bootprints imprinted on the moon. Or erasing them. Or carving them out of the Moon’s regolith and selling them to the highest bidder.
For All Moonkind seeks to protect human history in space, not just because we should memorialize humanity’s greatest technological achievements, but because, as Russell Train put it:
"the purpose of the World Heritage [is] something more than simply helping to assure protection and quality management for unique natural and cultural sites around the world –as critically important as that goal is. Above and beyond that goal, . . . the programme [is] an opportunity to convey the idea of a common heritage among nations and peoples everywhere! . . . it [is] a compelling idea that can help unite people rather than divide them. . . . it as an idea that can help build a sense of community among people throughout the world."
A sub-Working Group will consider how can the human species be specific about the culture we take to the Moon as a first step into the wider Solar System.
We will continue with a collaboration with For All Moonkind to support protection of heritage in space and on the Moon.
Cultural Considerations Working Group ©2021 Moon Village Association