Lunar Leftovers: How the Moon Became a Trash Can
R J Evans, Scienceray: We hear about the amount of waste floating around space all the time. However, the biggest trash can outside of earth’s atmosphere is in fact the moon.
The moon has only been accessible for decades, rather than hundreds of years. However, in the short time available to humanity it is estimated that we have left over one hundred and seventy thousand kilos of debris on the surface of our once pristine satellite. Here are some of the more notable pieces of trash on the moon.
Luna 2 (1959)
If H.G. Wells and others were correct and there were civilizations on the moon then they would have expelled a communal gasp of horror in 1959 when the first piece of man made technology hit the moon dust.
Looking now like some steampunk version of what we regularly send spinning in to space, Luna 2 was launched by the Soviets when the Cold War was at its height.
The collision with the moon at least proved one thing — that our nearest neighbor in space has no appreciable magnetic field.
To add insult to injury, half an hour after Luna 2 hit the moon, so did the
third stage of its rocket.
