A bill (HR 2617) introduced by Reps. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) and Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Tex.) on Monday, if passed, would establish the Apollo Lunar Landing Sites National Historic park. So no, this would not be a park that you pack the kids in the Winnebago and summer vacation to — unless “Winnebago” is somehow code in your family for “space craft that could take you to the moon.”

But that possibility — specifically, private space flight — is what inspired the bill. Commercial entities had been seeking information from NASA about how to plan their own missions to and exploration of the moon. In response to those and other questions and concerns, the space agency issued a report in July 2011 offering guidelines on how to preserve the United States’ “lunar artifacts” as commercial space flight continues to advance. In the introduction to the report, t