Humans have visited the moon and left parts of the moon landers, reflectors for bouncing lasers off, and a tiny statue. Not very impressive.
The Nazca Lines are beautiful, lasting, and can best be appreciated from the air. If something similar were created on the moon, it would be a lasting, visible monument to human ingenuity. It'd have to be a bit bigger, of course, to stand a chance of being visible from Earth. Maxium telescope resolution of the Moon's surface from an telescope on Earth = tan( wavelength of visible light / telescope size) * (distance from the Earth to the Moon); my back-of-the-envelope calculations give 0.76km for a 30-cm telescope. So, we need to make the design perhaps 100km across to be interesting.
Maybe a remote-control plow could turn up fresher and therefore lighter regolith; maybe it would be more effective to build up giant hills over the course of years. This will require further study. Either way, we needn't worry about wind erosion.
Amatuer astonomers all over the world will have something else interesting to look at. And hey, maybe after we destroy the earth, alien civilizations will marvel at the skill and dedication of these mysterious, long-lost artists.-- gisho, May 27 2016 Remote control giant desert etch-a-sketch Remote-Control_20Gi...ert_20Etch-a-SketchOne possible tool for making the glyphs. Scaled up, of course. [gisho, May 27 2016] Long-life_20Solar_2...ting_20Moon_20Sheep [xenzag, May 27 2016] Strandbeest http://www.strandbeest.com/Unbelievable, but true. [8th of 7, May 29 2016] This has already been done. Have you never wondered how the rabbit got there?-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 28 2016 Wasn't there some consortium about not defacing the moon?
Shame really, it's the ultimate sand castle competition ground.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 28 2016 Ooh yeah. Low gravity, no wind. Where's my bucket?-- RayfordSteele, May 28 2016 // Shame really, it's the ultimate sand castle competition ground.//
Sure, it's a nice venue at first glance, but there's no atmosphere.-- AusCan531, May 28 2016 What's more, the tide's gone out an awfully long way...-- 8th of 7, May 28 2016 "The man who sold the moon" does have the main character playing soft drinks makers bidding against each other to allow/deny the other guy putting their sigil on the moon, and in the Atrocity Archives the moon gains a toothbrush moustache and a floppy brow...
Call me boring, but was going through some old Asimov stories recently, and in one he definitely mentions the name "Wheland"....
For mega-boring points, unless I'm very much mistaken the stoner couple in X-file Season 3 Episode 22 are the same stoner couple in X-file Season 10, Episode 3. I got bored and pretty much ended up watching X-files end to end, if you're wondering.-- not_morrison_rm, May 29 2016 If you can get a reasonable 3D printer to your moon, you could build a Lunabeest ...
<link>-- 8th of 7, May 29 2016 is there a visible sun to moon lagrange point? if there is you could put up a giant transparency that would look like it was on the moon yet be otherwise-- beanangel, Jun 04 2016 For a good time google "Moon TV Jepsen"-- Steamboat, Jun 08 2016 random, halfbakery