[X] My Assistant

[Phil Stooke]

I suppose cordons would be my initial suggestion.

This isn't really a purely abstract issue even now. When Lunacorp wanted to drive rovers coupled to simulators in theme parks, they came in for a lot of flak for threatening the integrity of Apollo sites. The plan was to land near Apollo 11, inspect it, then drive to Surveyor 5, Ranger 8, then all the way to Apollo 17, and finally Luna 21/Lunokhod 2. Each site would be inspected. If all had gone according to plan this would already have happened. I had a student (Hi Megan!), study the route. She recommended adding Ranger 6 to the itinerary, and also pointed out lots of scenic targets - fresh craters, viewpoints etc. in addition to those sites.

Lunacorp boss David Gump was not happy about restrictions on his operations, as I understand it, but did grudgingly accept that Apollo 11 might be worth preserving. But he wasn't so sure that idea should be extended beyond the first landing. Lunacorp is no more but the idea could be resurrected by others at any time.

I actually had an abstract in 'Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century' (but only in the abstract volume) - in 1988 suggesting a set of lunar historic parks. This was a conservative suggestion - protect each site out to its horizon. But I would have developed it further to allow controlled visits to the site as long as it didn't cross rover or foot tracks. In every Apollo case you could get right up to the vicinity of the LM from a carefully chosen direction without crossing any tracks at all.

Phil