8 ms·
Apollo Moon flags still standing, images show
- tocomment 14y agoWhy does the flag look rippley in the picture at the top? Had he just planted it?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- emmelaich 14y ago(hope you're not trolling) It's rigid, but made to look like it's in a breeze. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Flag_Assembly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Flag_Assembly I
- tocomment 14y agoI know, it does sound like I am but I'm genuinely curious.
- ktizo 14y agoThis might help you - http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html
- tocomment 14y agoI can see how a bar would hold it stretched out, but what is giving the appearance of motion? And making the bottom corner look somewhat lifted up?
- capnrefsmmat 14y agoGiven that there is no air resistance on the Moon, any residual motion when it was planted would remain for some time. If the astronaut started it flapping when he planted it in the ground and adjusted the arm, it would probably flap for quite a while.
- mseebach 14y agoIt looks to me like it's still crumbled and creased from being packed up tightly.
- tocomment 14y agoMaybe with 1/6 gravity the creases stay folded up more than they would on Earth?
- ben1040 14y agoThis page, linked off the above mentioned Wikipedia article, is actually a pretty interesting read on the engineering challenge of shipping a flag to the Moon in such a manner that people in space suits could unpack it and set it up. http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/flag/flag.htm http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/flag/flag.htm The first U.S. flag on the moon was deployed by Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin during their historic EVA on 20 July 1969 (at 4 days, 14 hours and 9 minutes mission-elapsed time). The flag was seen worldwide on live television (Fig. 6). At their technical crew debriefing, Armstrong and Aldrin reported few problems with the deployment. They had trouble extending the horizontal telescoping rod and could not pull it all the way out. This gave the flag a bit of a "ripple effect," and later crews intentionally left the rod partially retracted.
- Jun8 14y agoThe first answer to this (idiotic) question is the correct one: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/12051/if-there-is-no-gravity-on-the-moon-why-is-the-american-flag-waving http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/12051/if-there-is...
- Luc 14y agohttp://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/alsj-usflag.html http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/alsj-usflag.html "Armstrong and Aldrin reported few problems with the deployment. They had trouble extending the horizontal telescoping rod and could not pull it all the way out. This gave the flag a bit of a "ripple effect," and later crews intentionally left the rod partially retracted."
- datalus 14y agoLittle known fact, astronauts are trolls.
- astrodust 14y agoFact: The whole manned mission to the moon was just to troll the USSR.
- snowwrestler 14y agoThe flag is fabric and was packed very tightly into a small container. The extender bar stretches it out, but does not eliminate the creases and wrinkles from being packed so tightly. On Earth, fabric tends to relax over time as it is pulled downward by gravity and absorbs water vapor from the air. Not much of either on the moon.
- CWIZO 14y agoI always wondered what kind of telescope one would need to look at the stuff we left on the moon (flag, cars, what was left of the rocket, ...). Anybody know or tried that? Is equipment like that even accessible to a regular joe like me?
- ColinWright 14y agoNot possible because of optical resolutions. If you web search that question you'll get more details. https://www.google.com/search?q=can+I+use+a+telescope+to+see+the+lunar+lander https://www.google.com/search?q=can+I+use+a+telescope+to+see... Here are some responses: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100906195045AA3oIe7 http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100906195045AA... http://stupendous.rit.edu/richmond/answers/lunar_lander.html http://stupendous.rit.edu/richmond/answers/lunar_lander.html http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=134/ http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=134/ http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/08/12/moon-hoax-why-not-use-telescopes-to-look-at-the-landers/ http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/08/12/mo...
- CWIZO 14y agoI was sure you could use the Hubble at least. Shows how much I know about this stuff :) Thanks for the links, they are quite informative.
- bgentry 14y agoActually, I remember reading somewhere that the Hubble was in fact pointed at the Lunar landing sites at one point, but that even its resolution was too low to produce any conclusive images of the landing sites.
- smallblacksun 14y agoWe just need to get the NRO to let us borrow one of their satellites :)
- 14y ago
- newbie12 14y agoI would love to visit these sites someday in person.
- Uchikoma 14y ago1. One half of my brain thinks: Why shouldn't they? 2. Other half thinks: Amazing!
- astrodust 14y agoUntil they're crushed by an impact, or the material somehow erodes by solar wind, they'll probably be there for a long time. Many huts in the Antarctic from the earliest days of exploration are still standing despite being considerably older and those conditions are far harsher than on the moon.
- squarecat 14y agoBased on the lighting from the rest of the image, shouldn't the flag shadow be longer and falling the other direction??
- jgrahamc 14y agoLooking at the illumination of the craters it looks like the Sun is on the right hand side of the picture in the BBC article (craters are dark on the right hand side, light on the left hand side). The shadow of the flag appears on the left hand side of the flag itself so it looks correct to me.
- squarecat 14y agoI wasn't seeing craters but mounds which, of course, is improbable for lunar geology. (Strangely, even after this revelation, my mind still processes the lighting as falling on objects the rise above the surface...)
- jedberg 14y agoIf going back to the moon to examine the condition of the flags is the excuse we need to go back, then I'm all for it! I just hope they do some real science while they are there.
- dwc 14y agoIf we ever plan to have an extended presence in space then examining artifacts left on the moon would be very informative. We left a lot of machinery up there, exposed to the vagaries of space for 40 years. There's a lot to be learned from the state of that equipment.
- dredmorbius 14y agoThis reminds me of a passage from Arthur C. Clark's Imperial Earth, set in 2276, in which a retrospective video on the first flight to the moon segues to a shot showing Tranquility Base at the (then) present time, complete with fallen flag and space tourists waving to cameras in the background. There's an ongoing preservationist debate over whether or not to re-plant the flag or leave it where it is. Other than UV bleaching and depolymerization of plastics (including the nylon the flag is made from), and slow micrometeorite ablation, these relics should stand for billions of years.
- dwc 14y agoFor those interested, here are some of the underlying posts on the LROC site itself... 1. http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/news/index.php?/archives/620-Question-Answered!.html http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/news/index.php?/archives/620-Questi... 2. http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/news/index.php?/archives/619-A-New-Tool-For-Exploring-NAC-Images!.html http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/news/index.php?/archives/619-A-New-... We have a huge amount of interesting images.