A new paper argues against the wisdom of the U.S. declaring sovereignty over parts of the moon. The Moon has been kind of a backwater lately. During the 1960s, and early 1970s it was the hottest possible destination, what with unmanned probes from the U.S. and U.S.S.R. touching down on the lunar surface, followed by American astronauts riding across the dusty landscape. It is not that scientists have lost interest by any means, but most of what they have learned in recent decades has come from orbiting spacecraft like GRAIL and LCROSS and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
All that is changing, however, as China gears up to launch its first lunar rover, the Change e-3 in mid-December (2013), following the success of the Chang e-1 and Chang e-2 orbiters in 2007 and 2010. The Russians have plans to return with unmanned probes as well, and so does at least one private company named Astrobotic Technology. While this new interest in up-close lunar exploration could be terrific for science, it could also threaten to disrupt or damage the historic sites of previous landings, where 60s-era technology still sits, undisturbed.
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