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For millennia, the Moon has inspired humans from afar, but the bright beacon in Earth’s night sky — located more than 200,000 miles (321,868 kilometers) away — has remained just out of reach. Everything changed on September 13, 1959, when the former Soviet Union’s unmanned spacecraft Luna 2 landed on the lunar surface.
According to NASA, the Luna 2 probe created a crater when it touched down on the moon between the Mare Imbrium and Mare Serenitatis lunar regions.
This pivotal moment in activating lunar dust marked the beginning of humanity’s efforts to explore the Moon, and some scientists now suggest it was also the beginning of a new geological epoch – or period of time in history – called the “Lunar Anthropocene.” in a commentary article published Dec. 8 in the journal Nature Geoscience.
“The idea is much the same as the discussion of the Anthropocene on Earth, exploring how much humans are impacting our planet,” said the paper’s lead author, Justin Holcomb, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Kansas Kansas Geological Survey. In a statement.
“There is consensus that the Anthropocene on Earth began at some point in the past, either hundreds of thousands of years ago or in the 1950s,” Holcomb said. “Similarly, we argue that the Lunar Anthropocene has already begun on the Moon, but we want to avoid major damage or delayed recognition until we measure a significant lunar halo caused by human activities, which would be too late.”
Scientists have tried to declare a definitive Anthropocene epoch on Earth for years, and recently presented new evidence from a region in Canada that some researchers believe is the beginning of a transformative chapter in our planet’s history.
The idea of the Lunar Anthropocene has emerged at a time when civil space agencies and commercial organizations are showing renewed interest in returning to the moon or, for some, landing on it for the first time.
The authors of the paper suggest that the Moon’s environment, already shaped by humans at the beginning of the Anthropocene Epoch, will change in more drastic ways as exploration increases.
Humanity’s lunar footprint
Outdoor enthusiasts and national park visitors are likely familiar with the concept of “Leave No Trace”: respecting and preserving natural environments, leaving items as they were found, and disposing of waste appropriately.
But the moon is full of traces of exploration.
More than a hundred spacecraft have collided and soft-landed on the moon since Luna 2 landed, and “humans have caused surface disturbances at at least 58 additional locations on the lunar surface,” according to the paper. Landing on the lunar surface is incredibly difficult, as evidenced by the numerous impacts that leave scars and create new craters.
The Cold War space race launched a series of lunar missions, the majority of which have remained uncrewed since then. NASA’s Apollo missions were the first to send humans around the Moon in the 1960s, followed by Apollo 11 in 1969, with astronauts landing safely on the lunar surface for the first time. After all, 12 NASA astronauts walked on the lunar surface between 1969 and 1972.
With the arrival of humans came scores of objects left behind, including scientific equipment for experiments, spacecraft components, flags, photographs and even golf balls, bags of human feces and religious texts, according to the newspaper.
The Moon appears unchanged from Earth. After all, it does not have a protective atmosphere or magnetosphere like our life-sustaining Earth. Micrometeorites regularly hit the surface because the Moon has no way to protect itself from space rocks.
Declaring the Lunar Anthropocene could make clear that the Moon is changing in ways it would not naturally change due to human exploration, the researchers said.
“Cultural processes are beginning to overtake the natural background of geological processes on the moon,” Holcomb said. “These processes involve the movement of sediments on the moon, which we call ‘regolith.’
The Moon also has features such as a fragile exosphere of dust, gas and ice that is constantly in shadow, vulnerable and likely to be disturbed by ongoing exploration, the authors wrote in their paper. “Future missions should consider reducing harmful impacts on lunar environments.”
lunar exploration spree
A new space race is heating up, as many countries are eyeing both robotic and crewed missions to explore the moon’s south pole and other unexplored and hard-to-reach lunar regions.
India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission made a historic and successful landing on the moon in 2023, following the crash of Russia’s Luna 25 spacecraft and Japanese company Ispace’s HAKUTO-R lander. This year, multiple missions are heading to the moon, including Japan’s “Lunar Sniper” lander, which is expected to attempt to land on January 19.
Astrobotic Technology’s Peregrine spacecraft was launched this week over objections from the Navajo Nation that the craft was carrying human remains that customers had paid to send to the lunar surface, sparking new debate over who controls the moon. But a thrust problem discovered hours after liftoff means Peregrine will not be able to attempt a moon landing, and its fate is now uncertain.
NASA’s Artemis program plans to return humans to the lunar surface in 2026. The agency’s goals include establishing a permanent human presence on the moon, with habitats supported by resources such as water ice at the moon’s south pole. China’s space goals include landing on the moon.
“In the context of the new space race, the landscape of the moon will be completely different in 50 years,” Holcomb said. “Multiple countries will be present, which will lead to many challenges. Our goal is to dispel the myth of lunar static and highlight the importance of our impact not only in the past, but ongoing and into the future. “We aim to initiate discussions about our impact on the lunar surface before it is too late.”
Archaeological record of the moon
Humanity’s traces on the moon have come to be viewed primarily as artifacts in need of some form of protection. Researchers have long expressed a desire to maintain the Apollo landing sites and catalog items left behind to preserve “space heritage.” But such protection is difficult to achieve because no country or organization “owns” the moon.
“A recurring theme in our work is the importance of lunar materials and lunar footprints as valuable resources, similar to the archaeological record that we are committed to preserving,” Holcomb said. “The Lunar Anthropocene concept aims to raise awareness and thinking about our impact on the lunar surface and our impact on the preservation of artifacts.”
The Apollo 11 moon landing marked the first time humans set foot on another world. The footprints left by astronauts in the lunar dust are perhaps the most symbolic traces of humanity’s ongoing journey and will likely include planets such as Mars in the future, researchers said.
“As archaeologists, we perceive lunar footprints as an extension of humanity’s journey out of Africa, a pivotal turning point in the existence of our species,” Holcomb said. “These traces are intertwined with the overarching narrative of evolution. Within this framework, we aim to attract the attention not only of planetary scientists, but also of archaeologists and anthropologists who do not usually participate in discussions of planetary science.”
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