Monday, November 07, 2011

Trash or historical treasures?

I love this. NASA is apparently worried that someday there will be "moon tourists" who will take pieces of NASA equipment left behind on the moon as souvenirs. According to this article at USA Today, NASA has set out "guidlines" on how a NASA landing site may be approached.

I'm sorry, but as far as I'm concerned, and the way international law seems to work, I would think that what NASA left behind on the moon, and any other planetary body would be considered "salvage". Basically, they left "trash" literally strewn across the surface of the moon. It's my opinion that anyone who makes it back there, should have the right to do whatever they want to with it, since it was "abandoned" by it's owners. Apparently though NASA believes they still have a right to ownership of things they've left unattended on the moon since the early 1970's, like the lunar rover for instance. I'm sorry, but if I left a dune buggy sitting on the shore of a lake somewhere here in America for nearly 40 years, I doubt I'd be allowed to still claim ownership of it!

No comments: