Two House Democrats have proposed legislation that would establish a national park in outer space, specifically on the moon surface marking where Apollo missions landed between 1969 and 1972, The Hill reports.
Sponsored by Reps. Donna Edwards (D., Md.) and Eddie Bernice Johnson (D., Texas), the bill would create the Apollo Lunar Landing Sites National Historic Park:
The bill says these sites need to be protected because of the anticipated increase in commercial moon landings in the future.
"As commercial enterprises and foreign nations acquire the ability to land on the Moon, it is necessary to protect the Apollo lunar landing sites for posterity," according to the text of the Apollo Lunar Landing Legacy Act, H.R. 2617.
Under the legislation, the park would be established no later than one year after the bill passes and would be run jointly by the Department of the Interior and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
The measure would allow the government to accept donations from companies and foreign governments to help manage the landing sites and "provide visitor services and administrative facilities within reasonable proximity to the Historical Park."
Questions of creating a national park outside U.S. borders and how park facilities and services would be kept up at a location more than 230,000 miles away have arisen already in response to the moon national park idea.