What would happen if, when mankind final acquires the technology to build functional habitats on the moon and when they go out exploring they don't find an American flag or any other debri and garbage left behind by numerous visits. Who would take the flack for that. Hopefully it doesn't happen that way.
First off we have the technology, just not the will to spend the money to do it. And secondly the the stuff from the moon landings is there. There are lunar mapping satellites orbiting in moon right now that have photographed the Apollo landing sites and the leftover hardware is visable in the photo’s.