[XBob]

the black hills are beautiful, and see what happened, somebody comes and carves up those beautiful mountains, then tourists from all over.

LOL - "my great grandchildren may be finding material years from now.",

boy I believe that. And it will give future generations of archeologists fits.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Well, we wonder now why the Sphinx was made ...

(Just an ad gimmic for Omir's Used Egyptian Camel Shoppe?)

.....

Seriously, I question just how many pounds of the (dangerous) secondary rocket propulsion were left at the end of a mission in the tanks; plus how much could have survived the tumbling and flames of re-entry such that NASA is concerned about ALL metal parts being realistically contaminated.

Seems to me that the odds of any serious contamination are too low, but that NASA is using chemical contamination by the propellant(s) to "prevent" handling from people so the engineering forensics/accident investigation is made easier.