Apollo Moonprints: Here for Millions of Years, Not Forever

Apollo bootprints pressed into the Moon’s dry, airless regolith are expected to persist for about ten million years due to the lack of wind, water, and atmosphere. Slow erosion from micrometeorite impacts, solar wind, and extreme temperature cycling will eventually erase them, but NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the sites remain intact from orbit. Future crewed or robotic activity near the sites could disturb the footprints, and there are protections being used to preserve the Apollo landing areas.