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Comment by rrmm | Hacker News Reader

We can see the shadow of it. The neat part is you can see the disturbed ground that the astronauts left while they moved around on the surface.

NOTE: these were taken from lunar orbit, not earth-based telescopes.

(shadow) https://www.space.com/6997-photos-reveal-apollo-11-moon-land...

(large-ish, descent stage, rover tracks) https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/images/584392main_M...

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Statistically, how many thousands (millions?) of years will those tracks, plaques, and other debris, still be visible to future intelligent live?

The estimated rate of dust accumulation on the Moon is around 15cm/billion years. So the footprints and other traces would disappear at some point between 10 and 100 million years.

It's really hard to estimate how long the hardware might last. Obviously there's no air or water, but there will be damage from radiation, temperature cycling, and micrometeorite abrasion.

A wild guess would be a similar timescale - max 100 million years, at which point there will be small anomalous piles of metal dust left, but no visible structure.

(But that's just a guess, and could be way out.)

That would make a great episode of Star Trek - finding a planet like Earth, with a moon, and no sign of life on the planet or any visible structures of any kind. But their moon has tracks and vehicles.

Reminds me of The Royale episode

Wow you can see the individual tire tracks

If any crimes were committed, they might be able to get a match on the vehicle the perps were driving!

Zoom in! Enhance!

it's right over there in the corner

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