I believe we really landed on the moon but...?

Question

why is the picture of the American flag waving in the wind? There would be no wind on the moon...

Answer 1

i don't know if i should answer this or not, but...

the american flags that the apollo landing crews left on the moon had sleeves across the top and a rod thru the sleeve so they hang from the rod. the american flags swung from the rod when the apollo landing crews deployed them. they did not "wave in the wind".

look here. you can clearly see the american flag hanging from the rod thru the sleeve. it is also creased from being crumpled inside a tube on the ladder of the landing module. this is a photograph of edwin e aldren.

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/as11-40-5874HR.jpg

Answer 2

Of course there is no wind on the moon. Check out the Bad Astronomy site for info and explanations on the supposed moon hoax.
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/apollohoax.html
Specifically, the flag appear to be waving because, ironically, there Is No Wind on the moon and therefore no air resistance to keep the flag still. Even tiny disturbances like an astronaut touching the flag or planting it into the moons surface would set the flag to moving and rippling. That's why there's an horizontal bar supporting the top edge of the flag - to keep it from warping around too much. But the lower part of the flag is free to move some, and it does, But NOT from wind.

Answer 3

The flag pole is an "L" shape. Upside down "L" actually. one leg of the "L" sticks into the ground and the other runs along the top of the flag. This was done because they realized the flag would not look right in 1/6 gravity with no wind. Given the Cold War competition aspect of the moon landings it was critical that the US Flag be prominently displayed and easy to recognize in photos.

Unfortunately, the flag on Apollo 11 was placed too close to the lander and most likely was knocked over by the force of the engine exhaust when the crew left the moon. Later flags were placed farther away from the lander to prevent this.

Answer 4

OK, first a few facts.

When Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969, all we had were very crude black and white TV images (I am not blaming anyone, here, receiving broadcast from the moon is no small feat). So any high quality image is a still photography. How can anyone tell if a flag is "waving" if it is still?

If you check the site I give below, you will see this infamous picture.

The flag is not waving, is it WRINKLED.

Answer 5

Wikipedia

Answer 6

A couple of years back there was a special TV story on either ch9 or Discovery channel on the very subject, did we ever go to the moon? The evidents were quite compelling that what we saw could have been a staged TV shot. Besides the question you asked there were many unexplanable questions. One of them were the photos provided by NASA. If you noticed all NASA photos have equally spaced little "cross" marks on them as reference points. These cross marks are superimposed on the photography by the camera and therefore they are all on top of the image. However one of the photos showed the elbow of an astronaut covering one of the cross marks. A manipulated photo? The other photos showed two different shodow directions from the spacecraft and the astronaut on the same picture. Hollywood lighting perhaps? Did we landed on the moon? Believe it or not.

Answer 7

The American flag on the moon was specially made. It has thin plastic strips in the field of the flag which hold it upright as though a wind was blowing it.

Answer 8

It's not waving in the wind. It's plastic and there's a stick holding it out. You can see Buzz twist the pole into the soil.
It looks like it waves, but if you look closer, it's just inertia operating in the vacuum of space. If you twist a flag like that on earth, the air in the way just slows it and it settles beneath the stick. In space, when the stick holding the flag out stops, the inertia of the moving flag keeps it continuing and it flips up the other way. It's clearly flipping, not waving. As I see it, it's absolutely a confirmation that we WERE there, not evidence we weren't.

Answer 9

I bumped into Harrison Schmitt a few years ago (I did it deliberately, so forever after I could say "I bumped into Harrison Schmitt"). He'd just given a speech on mining the moon for energy. He talked about what it was like to stand on the moon.

Now, if he didn't actually stand on the moon, then he would have been lying to me and everyone else in the audience.

I do not think Harrison Schmitt would lie to me. Therefore he must have actually gone to the moon and come back.

Answer 10

The ONLY time you see the flag "waving" is when someone interacts with it. Since it is on an upside down L type flagpole (it would just flop down otherwise) it does not move unless the pole itself is moved or acted upon. Anyone who tells you this was a hoax is an utter moron.