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."

Comments

Re:this is interesting and all...

[goodmanj]

Why wouldn't they be standing? Because of the exhaust from the lunar module ascent stage's rocket engine. The LM blew all kinds of crap around when it took off, and kicked up dust on the surface. Here's a video of the Apollo 17 lunar liftoff, taken from the lunar rover's remote controlled camera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iziumcklDbM

Re:this is interesting and all...

[hairyfeet]

A better video if you want to show what kind of mess that rocket kicks up is Apollo 15 because while 17 stayed focused on the ascent with 15 they stayed focused on the lander and you get to see what a mess is left after they fired that engine up, with debris splattered all over the place.