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Author
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Topic: Five out of six Apollo landing flags still standing
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Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 26847
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 07-29-2012 06:56 AM
   
collectSPACE Beyond a shadow of a doubt: US flags still standing at Apollo moon landing sitesForty-one years ago Monday (July 30), Apollo 15 landed on the moon and the fourth of ultimately six American flags was planted on the lunar surface. Those flags have been exposed to intense ultraviolet (UV) light and temperatures over the past four decades, leading many to question if the nylon stars and stripes still existed or if the star-spangled banners had degraded in the direct sunlight. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has now confirmed the famous flags' fate beyond a 'shadow' of a doubt... |
Hart Sastrowardoyo
Member Posts: 2034
From: Toms River, NJ,USA
Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 07-29-2012 08:58 AM
Which begs the question: What happened to the flag intended for Apollo 13? |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 26847
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 07-29-2012 11:09 AM
If I am not mistaken, the Apollo 13 flag was stowed in the Modularized Equipment Stowage Assembly (MESA) on the descent stage of the lunar module. As such, it was lost when Aquarius reentered the Earth's atmosphere. |
Fra Mauro
Member Posts: 988
From: Maspeth, NY
Registered: Jul 2002
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posted 07-30-2012 12:13 PM
Fox News did a nice segment on the flag story this morning. |
jemmy
Member Posts: 126
From:
Registered: Dec 2010
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posted 05-14-2013 06:28 PM
Can anybody answer the question on the whereabouts of the American flag that was intended to be placed on the moon by the crew of Apollo 13. Was it returned back to earth? Or was it left aboard Aquarius? Editor's note: Threads merged. |
Tom
Member Posts: 1248
From: New York
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 05-14-2013 06:34 PM
I believe the lunar surface flag was stored in a container on the outside of the LM descent stage... it did not return with the crew. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 765
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 05-14-2013 10:32 PM
I would say the flag was still in its stowage location in the descent stage when the LM was jettisoned and burned up on reentry. From the Apollo 13 Press Kit:The United States flag to be erected on the lunar surface measures 30 by 48 inches and will be deployed on a two-piece aluminum tube eight feet long. The folding horizontal bar which keeps the flag standing out from the staff on the airless Moon has been improved over the mechanisms used on Apollo 11 and 12. The flag, made of nylon, will be stowed in the lunar module descent stage modularized equipment stowage assembly (MESA) instead of in a thermal-protective tube on the LM front leg, as in Apollo 11 and 12. |
p51
Member Posts: 704
From: Olympia, WA, USA
Registered: Sep 2011
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posted 05-16-2013 05:46 PM
So odd that the flags are still there, for years I'd heard that radiation would have screwed up the flags so badly that all of them would be gone. And that was many years ago I started hearing that.I guess they didn't take into account the fine tradition of flag making in the good ol' US of A! |
Shikedants
New Member Posts: 6
From: Old Tappan, NJ, USA
Registered: Feb 2013
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posted 05-17-2013 11:03 AM
Reading the account of how difficult it was for Neil and Buzz to hammer down the flagpole, I found myself wondering if they didn't overengineer this whole thing. Why didn't they just use something similar to a microphone stand. Given how light the flag and pole would have been on the moon, you could have made a pole and stand with very light materials, probably even a coat hanger. It most likely wouldn't have tipped over as there's no wind. Just put it far enough from the LM and It would stay up forever. Do you think it was important for us to know that the flag was pounded into the moon? |
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