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Images Show Apollo Moon Flags Still Standing
TheNextCorner writes "Images taken by a NASA spacecraft show that the American flags planted in the Moon's soil by Apollo astronauts are mostly still standing. Each of the Apollo missions planted an American flag in the soil at their landing sites. Scientists had previously examined photos of the Apollo landing sites for the flags, and had seen what looked like shadows cast by them on the lunar surface. Now, researchers have studied photos of the landing sites taken at different points during the day (and under different illuminations) and have observed shadows circling the points where the flags are thought to be."
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AIUI, the flag is actually hanging from a thin, stiff rod that holds it up. If it weren't for that, it would always have been hanging down.
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You joke, but (IIRC) the Apollo 11 flag was accidentally knocked over during lift-off (rocket engines, unsurprisingly, generate "wind"). They tried to plant the flags further from the craft during later missions, but I guess they were never 100% sure it didn't happen again (I'm about to RTFA to find out).
As I recall (being old enough to have watched the whole thing on TV as a kid) - the moon flags have a rigid frame behind the fabric. Assuming the flag itself is made from actual fabric, which I don't remember. Anyway, the flags would not wave in a breeze.
It would be interesting to revisit the sites and see what kind of shape the flags are in - if there are holes punched through them, for instance.
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Not even Hubble can resolve that from LEO: http://hubblesite.org/reference_desk/faq/answer.php?id=77&cat=topten