Poop on the Moon?

I was but a youngster, barely housebroken myself, when our Apollo astronauts began landing on the moon. I didn't fully comprehend the intricacies of space flight, but there was one thing of which I was certain - after a really long trip, the first order of business was to find a bathroom!

I know what you're thinking - Neil Armstrong should have taken care of that before he left the Earth. But c'mon, man! Sitting on top of an Atlas 5 rocket as it rumbles off of the launch pad is enough to make anyone fill their shorts with Tang.

As it turns out, Neil left a couple of deuces on the lunar surface. It's all very scientific - it's not like you can drop your spacesuit pants and dangle off the side of a crater - so there are assorted "defecation collection devices" around the landing site.

Apparently Neil drew the line at splashing down with bags of poo in the spacecraft, which makes sense, and unless some cosmic event takes place to disturb the relative tranquility of the lunar surface, that moon-poop should remain undisturbed for generations.

Or will it?

Some conservationists are concerned that neither NASA nor the federal government has 1) interest, or 2) budget to preserve the landing site, including the astro-droppings. They fear that when moon travel becomes commercial, we'll all be tromping around, ruining the poo-scape for everyone.

I think it's a little presumptuous of us to think there's necessarily value in preserving the landing site, since we live in an ever-changing universe. If anything, we should send a pooper-scooper, lest we become known as a group of explorers who trek great distances, leave behind our trash, take a dump, and go back home.

Just like we do at our national parks.

Poop on the moon, and how to protect it , via BoingBoing