Tuesday, July 31, 2012

The Flags Remain!







NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera captured the shadowed side of the flag planted at the Apollo 16 site.

Each of the six Apollo missions to the Moon's surface left a patriotic reminder of the mission - The Stars & Stripes, stiffened by flexible metal strips, standing proudly on the landing site.

In a conversation with a listener, he recalls that Armstrong reported that he observed the Apollo 11's flag being blown over by the blast from Eagle's LAM as it lifted off.

This started some speculation that persisted to today, wondering if Armstrong indeed saw their flag topple and furthermore what fate did the other 5 flags come too.

Well according to my friend and backed up with an article from the NY Daily News, sent in by Xnewsman,

The most recent photos taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera show that all 5 flags do indeed still stand — except the one placed by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin July 20, 1969.

As you can see in this amazing photo: Not only is the decent module clearly visible but the shadow of the flag, this one from the Apollo 16 & 17 missions.  Of course if you look closely you can see the LRV or "rover".

Now I can not add any validity to this statement, but it was mentioned that further pictures from the cameras aboard the LRV show some of the other discarded   hardware, not confined to just the PLISS backpacks.  I can not imagine why they would discard helmets, gloves and boots considering that these would almost be safety related items, however it WAS mentioned that these items were also jettisoned.  Someone want to correct me on this statement?!

Oh and before I forget, the complete article is linked to this article's title.
Also check out nasa.gov and the WIKI on the LRO here

10 comments:

kallamis said...

If they were discarding safety equipment and gear, then I have a question that has to be asked.
What were they removing all that weight for, and what were they bringing back that we haven't been told about.
I bet it was aliens littering up the landscape.
Come to earth, buzz the locals, picnic on the moon, and then we pick up their trash like it's a great find.
See, they're no different than most of the people here.

Beam Me Up said...

Hummm....are you speculating or seeing who rises to the bait?

kallamis said...

I'm not sure myself actually. Never been quite sure what to make of all the theories out there. Leaving out the farthest ones.
But yeah, I have wondered if we didn't find something there. And then make the required amount of trips to get all of it we needed, and then stopped going back. After all, you can only collect rocks and dust so many times.

kallamis said...

But just so you all know, yes I am one of the people that believe the ancient aliens concept.
Mom had me reading strange stuff as a kid. And yeah, Chariots was the first.

Beam Me Up said...

"After all, you can only collect rocks and dust so many times."

It is only redundant if you have already procured enough material to reasonably access the makeup of the system of interest....and you are of a mind that six trips was enought to accomplish this?

kallamis said...

For me no. I'd have made about 50, and still be going. I was referring there to our governments basic structure of patience, and if we don't get it quick, we quit.
They had to be looking for some kind of monetary value as well. Not the entire system of course, and certainly not the people. But when it comes to money, we do get very cheap when it comes to e a lot of research that we should be doing.
That is actually what causes my suspicion. I'm probably wrong, but you never know.

Beam Me Up said...

von dunitagin hmmm? You know...I try not to put "believe" into my vernacular, because then it becomes to subjective, which is to say if I don't believe they don't exists...little too egocentric for my tastes...but anyway.. mathematically speaking life on another planet exists, which begs the follow on suggests that intelligent life is highly likely, but less so. Intelligent life capable of language and building a society based on the exchange of goods and ideas...again likely, but less so...so it holds for high-tech, then on to space flight to the nearest "celestial" body. Then spaceflight to all parts of their stellar system...You begin to see a trend? Even if it is only 1% less likely, a race capable of travel deep onto their own "solar" system is a bit of a rare bird. Then technology so advanced as to be able to travel anywhere in their local stellar system...
I am willing to go on record as saying that in our galaxy, there isn't and hasn't been to this date any intelligent society with enough technology or whatever to extend their sphere of influence more that 100ly. For the very same reason I do not feel the multi-generation ships would be practical or even work past one generation.

It is mathematically unlikely.

Beam Me Up said...

in response to the how many missions...Ok, I didn't pick up on the sarcasm...oh yes..every administration since Kennedy planted his foot squarely in the ass of air and space admin. has had a special interest leach that eventually bled the system dry.

kallamis said...

To be honest, I am surprised that we made it to the moon as often as we did. We beat everyone there, and Kennedy was already taken from us.
Yeah I contribute almost the entire moon project to his pushing.
Anyway, back to our aliens. I have always thought a bit different than a lot of people on this as well. I don't believe that earth was destination. There are only two really valid reasons. curiosity, and resources. My thoughts are on the curiosity side, but it was simply they were passing through, and earth was there. Kind of like heading for India, and ending up in Virginia. We just happened to be on their route.
Now, after the just happened to be on route, there are way too many answers even for me to come up with one. The only one I will not use in my game is that they simply stopped for a few resources, and in exchange gave a hand with some of the ancient peoples of earth.
And on the time thing is where i really go off from everyone else. I never try and think about alien life in any way like us in terms of basics like survival age limits, etc. What if they live for a couple thousand years. Just because we need what we need, and live only a short time, doesn't mean another race is like that. I know that seems weird, but it is only a part of what I put together once. I'd have to write up a whole article, and even then there wouldn't be the room. Plus I have no real idea how to really categorize this area to be honest.
But there's the basic I am sure you can figure it out from there with no problem.
But yeah, no big meaning. They just stumbles across us in passing.

Beam Me Up said...

In response to life span...if we dispense for a moment with the "what ifs" and "maybes" life span really is not the issue. A thousand years or immortal, the 1000 year span will not even make a fraction of the 100ly bubble, the immortal could but won't for any number of reasons. Hibernation is the wild card for us as it might be for them, but still the vast distances that the 100ly bubble represents is staggering, and representing thousands of years so there would have to be a paradyme shift in technology just to continue to operate for these periods of time...