How much human race has left "garbage" in the moon?

A spherical spaceship launched by the Soviet Union in 1959Luna 2Since it collided with the moon, mankind repeatedly carried out activities of bringing many substances to the moon, causing them to collide and landing, and when people rise to the moon, they throw away supplies and return home. It was. As a result, on the moon, "trash" of human beings exceeding 100 tons is actually left.

How Much Trash Is on the Moon?
https://www.livescience.com/61911-trash-on-moon.html

As a result of the heavy space development competition developed by the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War age from the 1950's to the 1970's and the subsequent lunar surface exploration by each country, many goods were sent in the month and left in place It was. First of all, mankind sent the substance to the moon was the Soviet Union Luna 2 in 1959, at which time the artificial satellite with mass of about 390 kg and its propulsion device collided with the lunar surface. For the while, only Soviet satellites were sent to the moon, and in February 1966Luna 9Succeeded in soft landing using the airbag and succeeded in photographing "moon surface photograph" which becomes the first in mankind.


On the other hand, America was three years late from the Soviet Union, in 1962Ranger 4The first lunar arrival was to let the lunar collide with the moon, the first time landing soft landing on the Moon was four months late from the Soviet Union in June 1966Arashi oceanLanded onSurveyor No.1was.


Later month exploration activities by both major powers continued, and in 1969Apollo 11We will have one peak at the arrival of the lunar surface of humankind. At this time I landed on the moonApollo moon landing shipThe mass is as large as 15 tons. The lower half of the "descending module" was used for landing, and when three astronauts return to the earth, they are separated from "rising module" and remain as they are on the moon It is getting.


When there was little understanding of the appearance of the lunar surface, first of all, a survey to find out what the surface is made of, the degree of hardness, temperature, slipperiness etc. features It was done. For that purpose, a number of exploration vessels have made observations, and eventually the aircraft itself has also been used for precious data collection by colliding with the lunar surface. From these results, what was originally thought to be "the spacecraft can not land because the lunar surface is made up of flowing sand" gradually "gradually" there is hard ground and the landing of the spacecraft I can understand that it can bear. "

Following the exploration by the Soviet Union and the United States, Europe, Japan, India, China etc. also sent various large and small exploration vessels to the moon for exploration. As a result, the amount of "garbage" dumped or left on the moon is 189 tons or more. This figure is as of 2014, but the English version of Wikipedia's page "List of artificial objects on the Moon"A breakdown of that is listed.

Most of it was brought in by the exploration plan of the United States. According to NASA's chief historian William Barry, most of it was brought in between the years 1969 and 1972 by the Apollo program, among which the Apollo moon landing ship and the astronauts mentioned above The weight used to move on the lunar ride 210 kgLRV(Lunar Roving Vehicle:Lunar car) And so on.


According to Mr. Barry, the idea of ​​the Apollo era was that there was not much to think about replacing the necessary equipment to the earth. Also, if you were using those things, it is said that there was a waste of consuming a lot of precious fuel and so on. Barry said, "Anything in an engineering project like the Apollo program, the plan of the mission is narrowed down to what we need, so we will not consider any more." The most important thing in the Apollo program was that we could safely send the astronaut to the moon, change the moon samples and return the astronauts to the earth safely. For that reason, unnecessary items and things that can be reduced were cut off one after another at the planning stage.

Although it is "garbage left in the moon" that has been abandoned based on this way of thinking, in the future it is possible that these can become "treasure". In the private-led space development that has been booming in the early 2000s, one of its goals is said to be "lunar travel". If the day when the ordinary people actually visit the moon as "travel" comes, the waste left in the moon is said to be a "tourist spot" that can totally observe the history of wisdom of humanity It is.

It seems that big garbage such as "Moon landing ship" and "lunar car" mentioned above will of course be a big eyeball, but besides that, on the lunar surface, The iron balls and eagles brought in to show that it falls at the same speed ", hammers and pickles used for exploration, NASA stars and star flags on the moon are left behind, Many of them are believed to remain in their original form on the lunar surface where air and water do not exist.

(PDF)FINAL Catalog of Manmade Material on the Moon - FINAL Catalog of Manmade Material on the Moon.pdf