By Tim Binnall
A newly released list of endangered cultural heritage sites features a surprising off-world inclusion: the moon. Created by the World Monuments Fund, the biennial catalog of threatened locations aims to raise awareness of challenges facing the preservation of spots that are significant to our understanding of human history. To that end, in announcing the 2025 installment of the cultural watchlist, the group expressed concern about what frequent and unregulated travel to the moon in the future could mean for priceless artifacts and iconic sites found on the lunar surface.
These objects and places, such as the Apollo 11 landing site Trinity Base, "have been preserved in relatively stable condition over decades," the group wrote, thanks to the atmospheric conditions of the moon. However, they mused that an expected increase in lunar visitations in the coming years presents "novel risks to the integrity of historic landing sites." Specifically, they warned that these locations could be subject to "souveniring and looting" or outright erasure by misguided lunar tourists eager to literally follow in the footsteps of the Apollo astronauts or take a piece of the history home with them.
At Trinity Base alone, the organization noted, are a staggering "106 assorted artifacts" from the first lunar landing, including "Neil Armstrong's iconic boot print." Beyond that, the World Monuments Fund indicated that there are "over 90 historic landing and impact sites that mark humankind's presence on the moon's surface." These locations and objects are threatened, they lamented, because there is "no dedicated international agreement addressing lunar heritage protection." As such, the group hopes that including the moon on their list of culturally endangered sites will inspire "a broader public conversation" about how to best protect these historic locations for future generations.