# Is the American flag still on the moon?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-american-flag-still-on-the-moon/418983
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 12, 2007, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-american-flag-still-on-the-moon/418983 "2007-09-12T22:28:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2007, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-american-flag-still-on-the-moon/418983/1 "2007-09-12T22:28:10Z")
…And if so, are there telescopes powerful enough that it would be visible? I’m just wondering if that would be a way to prove to the deniers that we’ve actually landed there.
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### Author:  [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2007, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-american-flag-still-on-the-moon/418983/2 "2007-09-12T22:29:31Z")
[QUOTE=woodstockbirdybird]
…And if so, are there telescopes powerful enough that it would be visible? I’m just wondering if that would be a way to prove to the deniers that we’ve actually landed there.
[/QUOTE]
That wouldn’t prove anything to them. That’s the thing with crazy people.
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### Author:  [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2007, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-american-flag-still-on-the-moon/418983/3 "2007-09-12T22:35:29Z")
From [this earlier thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=157602):
> [@](#):
>
> According to this link:
>
> [NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive Status - NASA](http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetar...lo_11_30th.html)
>
> The flag was knocked down by the blast from the LEM lifting off.
>
> So it’s still there, but not standing.
And further in the thread, “no”, there is no telescope on Earth powerful enough to show what remains of the flag. And the Hubble couldn’t see it, either.
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2007, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-american-flag-still-on-the-moon/418983/4 "2007-09-12T22:41:16Z")
What there IS still on the Moon that we can readily detect is a corner cube array used to reflect laser light for making precise measurements of the Moon’s distance from us. That ought to be proof enough for any reasonable person. Unfortunately that leaves out most of the whackjob deniers.
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2007, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-american-flag-still-on-the-moon/418983/5 "2007-09-12T22:41:47Z")
There’s NO flag on the moon!
I stopped by there in late '74 and took all six.
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### Author:  [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2007, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-american-flag-still-on-the-moon/418983/6 "2007-09-12T23:06:28Z")
What about the footprints? Are they still there?
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2007, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-american-flag-still-on-the-moon/418983/7 "2007-09-12T23:33:08Z")
[QUOTE=alphaboi867]
What about the footprints? Are they still there?
[/QUOTE]
They should be. There’s no mechanism for obliterating them in such a short time. The Clementine spacecraft took photos of the area where one of the moon landings occurred, and (if you have a good imagination) you can see for yourself: [Apollo 15: The Moon Buggy Debuts | Space](http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/missions/apollo15_touchdown_photos_010427.html)
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### Author:  [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2007, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-american-flag-still-on-the-moon/418983/8 "2007-09-12T23:53:26Z")
Very good to know. Thanks, everyone.
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2007, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-american-flag-still-on-the-moon/418983/9 "2007-09-13T00:31:12Z")
[The moon does have dust storms.](http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/07dec_moonstorms.htm) How long does it take this abliterate the moon tracks?
[Second link.](http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/051207_moon_storms.html)
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2007, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-american-flag-still-on-the-moon/418983/10 "2007-09-13T00:37:09Z")
I think “storms” might be a bit of a stretch… 🙂
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### Author:  [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2007, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-american-flag-still-on-the-moon/418983/11 "2007-09-13T00:52:32Z")
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus]
There’s NO flag on the moon!
I stopped by there in late '74 and took all six.
[/QUOTE]
Ooh, ooh! I’ll give you $54 for the Apollo 17 flag! Pleeeeeeeease!
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### Author:  [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2007, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-american-flag-still-on-the-moon/418983/12 "2007-09-13T00:53:54Z")
There are six LEM landing stages on the Moon, not to mention three Surveyor soft landers. But facts have never stopped a good crazy conspiracy fantasy.
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### Author:  [@Great\_Dave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Dave)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2007, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-american-flag-still-on-the-moon/418983/13 "2007-09-13T01:01:20Z")
Well, duh. How you gonna prove that those artifacts are on the moon, and not on some sound stage in Nevada?
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### Author:  [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2007, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-american-flag-still-on-the-moon/418983/14 "2007-09-13T08:28:52Z")
[QUOTE=Duck Duck Goose]
From [this earlier thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=157602):
And further in the thread, “no”, there is no telescope on Earth powerful enough to show what remains of the flag. And the Hubble couldn’t see it, either.
[/QUOTE]
No? We can read a headline in a newspaper from space, but we can’t see the LEM on the Moon? :dubious:
[QUOTE=Great Dave]
Well, duh. How you gonna prove that those artifacts are on the moon, and not on some sound stage in Nevada?
[/QUOTE]
Because a telescope can’t see through the walls and roofs of a sound stage. 😉
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### Author:  [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2007, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-american-flag-still-on-the-moon/418983/15 "2007-09-13T08:51:00Z")
Telescopes reading headlines on your front porch, if such exist, are orbiting a hundred miles up. The moon, on the other hand is a quarter million miles away. So, were the headline on the newspaper story true, the telescope that would see the Moon Lander would be looking twenty five thousand times as far.
You can see a quarter, well enough to read heads or tails at ten feet, if you see really well. How well do you suppose you would do calling heads or tails for a quarter on the Washington Monument, if you were looking from Miami?
Tris
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### Author:  [@Uncle\_Martin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Martin)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2007, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-american-flag-still-on-the-moon/418983/16 "2007-09-13T09:13:30Z")
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus]
There’s NO flag on the moon!
I stopped by there in late '74 and took all six.
[/QUOTE]
I think you’re misremembering by five years [Mr. Griffith](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvage_1) .
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### Author:  [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2007, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-american-flag-still-on-the-moon/418983/17 "2007-09-13T09:33:48Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin]
There are six LEM landing stages on the Moon, not to mention three Surveyor soft landers.
[/quote]
And two golf balls
> [@](#):
>
> But facts have never stopped a good crazy conspiracy fantasy.
In impossible lies.
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2007, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-american-flag-still-on-the-moon/418983/18 "2007-09-13T10:40:26Z")
[QUOTE=if6was9]
No? We can read a headline in a newspaper from space, but we can’t see the LEM on the Moon? :dubious:
[/QUOTE]
Regardless of whether we can or can’t read a newspaper headline from space, the fact is that space is _not very far away at all_
As Fred Hoyle once said, it’s only an hour’s drive away, if your car could go straight upwards. The moon, on the other hand, would take you five months to drive to 😉
> [@beowulff](#):
>
> They should be. There’s no mechanism for obliterating them in such a short time. The Clementine spacecraft took photos of the area where one of the moon landings occurred, and (if you have a good imagination) you can see for yourself: [Apollo 15: The Moon Buggy Debuts | Space](http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/missions/apollo15_touchdown_photos_010427.html)
Cool link, but ugh - wouldn’t you think a “Senior Space Writer” would know the difference between “pouring” and “poring”?
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2007, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-american-flag-still-on-the-moon/418983/19 "2007-09-13T10:44:17Z")
[QUOTE=Triskadecamus]
Telescopes reading headlines on your front porch, if such exist, are orbiting a hundred miles up. The moon, on the other hand is a quarter million miles away. So, were the headline on the newspaper story true, the telescope that would see the Moon Lander would be looking twenty five thousand times as far.
[/QUOTE]
Nitpick: 2,500 times as far.
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2007, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-american-flag-still-on-the-moon/418983/20 "2007-09-13T12:47:30Z")
They send probes to all the planets, and beyond. They land probes on some planets and moons. We have many satellites orbiting the earth. They want to make a moon base, yet nobody sends a satellite to orbit the moon. Wouldn’t it be easier to set up satellites orbiting the moon before all the different countries try to set up a moon base? We should be able to learn stuff from a satellite orbiting the moon, and have great quality pictures of the topography. Not even a European attempt has been made, and they rub Nasa’s nose in their accomplishments when they can. They are the space agencies of Earth, so you know who they are.
For the it isn’t much of a storm, I have to say it has been ocuring for 30 some years since the landings.
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