The lunar boot prints are not subjected to the winds and breezes that gently wipe away footprints here on Earth. Instead, they sit calmly in the vacuum of space (via Business Insider). And they aren’t at risk of disappearing through water erosion since that requires running water, which doesn’t exist on Earth’s lunar companion. There’s no volcanic activity on the moon either, so the lunar surface will remain unchanged on that front.

The only way the moon’s landscape really changes is through solar wind and meteor strikes. The former comes from charged particles shot out from the sun, which create erosion similar to that on Earth, but via an extremely slow process. Meteorites are a far more likely boot print killer, as the moon is constantly bombarded by flying space rocks due to its lack of atmosphere. An ill-placed meteor could take out an astronaut’s footprints and maybe already has. Still, the odds of a direct hit are low, meaning these small steps for man and giant leaps for mankind will likely be preserved for millennia.