SW New Mexico News

In January, the World Monuments Fund announced its 2025 Watch list of heritage sites facing significant challenges. This year's list includes 25 locations across five continents and, for the first time, features the moon. The lunar surface holds numerous artifacts from human and robotic exploration, such as the Apollo 11 landing in the Sea of Tranquility, where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's footprints have remained since 1969.

The inclusion of the moon is a milestone for Beth O’Leary, an anthropology professor emerita at New Mexico State University. For 25 years, she has worked to find ways to preserve important lunar artifacts and sites. "Cultural resources on the moon so far have been preserved by their remoteness but are vulnerable to damage and destruction from increasing space activities, both national and commercial," O’Leary said. She emphasized that "the World monument Watch calls for global cooperation to preserve the moon’s cultural and scientific legacy."

The Tranquility Base site preserves approximately 106 artifacts related to the Apollo 11 event, including the landing module. O'Leary remarked, "It’s the first time the World Monuments Fund has recognized another celestial body." She expressed excitement about their nomination being selected to place the moon on its 2025 Watch list as part of efforts toward international lunar preservation.

The initiative began with one of O’Leary’s graduate students under a grant from the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium at NMSU. Over time, groups of students contributed to nominations for protecting these artifacts. In 2010, one group accompanied O’Leary to Santa Fe and successfully had Apollo 11's Tranquility Base artifacts added to New Mexico’s State Register of Cultural Properties.

O’Leary has also served on national committees and co-authored books like “The Final Mission: Preserving NASA’s Apollo Sites” and “Archaeology and Heritage of the Human Movement into Space.” As a member of ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) and its International Scientific Committee on Aerospace Heritage, she helped write the nomination for lunar preservation.

Selected from over 200 nominations reviewed by international experts, this recognition marks a significant step towards advocating international agreements for lunar heritage protection. Bénédicte de Montlaur, president of World Monuments Fund, stated that "for the first time, the moon is included on the Watch to reflect the urgent need to recognize and preserve artifacts that testify to humanity’s first steps beyond Earth – a defining moment in our shared history."

O'Leary argues that this legacy belongs to all humanity—from Luna 2 by the Soviet Union in 1959 to recent missions by various nations—and suggests using models like Antarctica's Treaty system for consensual site protection approvals. She stressed that "we want lunar sites to come under international protections" through future agreements ensuring other nations involved in lunar exploration can collaborate in safeguarding this heritage.

Beth O'Leary believes Apollo astronauts are part of a broader movement dating back over 300,000 years when ancestors left Africa—a journey continuing today with solar system exploration.