The Moon Just Got Crowded: Microbes, Space Junk, and a Bold New Lunar Race

The Debate

Here's a question that would have sounded absurd five years ago: Should we worry about polluting the Moon before we even move in?

In a single week, three seismic stories collided around the lunar south pole — the most coveted patch of real estate in the solar system. A NASA study found that Earth microbes can survive in the Moon's shadowy crevices. NASA's own orbiter photographed a 60-foot crater carved by a SpaceX rocket that nobody meant to land there. And China is preparing to...