While humans are expected to return to the lunar surface on the Artemis III mission as soon as 2026, a series of privately funded lunar trips before then intend to use the moon as a sort of "dumping ground" for a variety of materials, including human remains. The Apollo missions left equipment and landers on the moon, but the idea of using the rock as a sort of waste site does not sit well with everybody.Â
The trouble is there are "no U.S. laws or standards outlining what is acceptable on the celestial body's surface," Reuters said. Among the items proposed for a place on the moon's surface is a two-story Christian cross made of the moon's dirt. "Nobody owns the moon," Justin Park, the entrepreneur who wants to build the lunar cross, told Reuters.Â
The plan to send human remains to the moon as part of the recent Peregrine mission was heavily criticized by the Navajo, who regard the moon as "sacred" and considered the private company's memorial mission "sacrilege," Reuters said. Peregrine, which launched with the human ashes aboard on Jan. 8, failed to land on the moon, but the Navajo have not stopped pursuing lunar regulations. "The unfortunate outcome of the Peregrine mission should not detract from the broader policy discussion we seek to encourage about the treatment of the moon," Justin Ahasteen, the executive director of the Navajo Nation's Washington, D.C., office, said to USA Today. | 
