Moon landing sites at risk from space tourism, preservationists warn

• The organization said "a burgeoning commercial space industry" may pose "novel risks" to preserving the integrity of dozens of historic landing and impact sites on the Moon's surface.
• This year the advocacy program featured 25 historic sites that face major challenges, including conflict, climate change and natural disaster.

Driving the news: The organization named Tranquility Base, in particular, as a trove of historic artifacts immortalizing the first time humans walked on the Moon that must be protected.

• "Exploitative visitation, souveniring, and looting by future missions and private lunar exploration could eventually compromise this truly unique cultural heritage, removing artifacts and forever erasing iconic prints and tracks from the Moon's surface," according to the WMF.
• Tranquility Base, the WMF's page on preserving the Moon reads, is one of over 90 historic landing and impact sites that "mark humankind's presence on the Moon's surface and testify to some of our most extraordinary feats of courage and ingenuity."

Zoom out: International collaboration is key to preserving the Moon's historic legacy, the organization writes.

• The Artemis Accords, a U.S.-led agreement by dozens of nations, govern civil uses of the Moon, its resources and other parts of outer space.
• Nations across the globe have raced to tap the Moon's scientific, economic and geopolitical value — while the commercial space race intensifies.

Other sites on the World Monuments Fund list include areas struck by war, like Gaza and an iconic building in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Go deeper: The race to tap the Moon's immense value