“This time, we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint, we will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars and perhaps, someday, to many worlds beyond.” 45th President, Donald J Trump
REIGNITING AMERICA’S SPACE LEGACY: President Trump is keeping his promise to restore America’s proud legacy of leadership in space. DARING AGAIN: President Trump is building a space program worthy of our great Nation and the American spirit.
- An American has not walked on the Moon in 47 years, but President Trump is working to change that.
- To achieve this goal, President Trump is taking action to ensure that American astronauts get to their destination quickly and sustainably.
REIGNITING AMERICA’S SPACE LEGACY: President Trump is keeping his promise to restore America’s proud legacy of leadership in space.
Americans will return to the Moon for long-term exploration, followed by missions to Mars and beyond.
These recommendations follow President Trump’s bold call for America to go back to the Moon and establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars.
In December 2017, President Trump signed SPD-1, “Reinvigorating America’s Human Space Exploration Program.”
The President’s Space Policy calls for NASA to lead an innovative space program with commercial and international partners. (SOURCE)
Celestron.com reports on the potential to see them and what state they most likely are in:
Can We See the American Flags Left on the Moon by the Apollo Astronauts
Can we directly see the flags on the Moon with an Earthbound telescope?
The answer is no. The largest of the American flags on the Moon is the one left by Apollo 17. It spans six feet when unfurled. A target that small at the quarter million-mile lunar distance is beyond the reach of any Earthbound telescope, even the most sophisticated professional observatories equipped with state-of-the-art optics.
To show the limitations of Earthly telescopes in observing ultra-small detail on the Moon, well-known astronomer Yuri Beletsky at the European Southern Observatory in Chile conducted an experiment using an eight-meter adaptive optics telescope. He tried to visually spot the 150-foot-long shadow of one of the Apollo landing stages still resting on the Moon. His attempt failed, showing that viewing the flags, targets at least ten times smaller, is impossible with current technology.
Can we see the flags on the Moon with a space telescope?
What about space-based telescopes that don’t have to contend with such vast distances and the Earth’s atmosphere? Here we have better news. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) satellite, tasked with mapping the Moon’s surface from lunar orbit for a decade, does achieve sufficient resolution to spot the shadows of three Apollo flags. In fact, LRO’s cameras can see objects as small as 20 inches on the surface of the Moon, sufficient to positively identify the extended shadows streaming from the Apollo 12, 16, and 17 flags.
What happened to the six American flags on the Moon?
Why have we only seen three of the six flags American astronauts planted on the Moon? Let’s look at the status of the flags from the six Apollo expeditions that landed on the Moon between 1969 and 1972.
Buzz Aldrin saw the Apollo 11 flag blow over when the Lunar Module Eagle took off from the Moon on July 21st, 1969. Aldrin and fellow Moonwalker Neil Armstrong planted the flag just 27 feet from the centerline of the lunar lander. The flagpole did not withstand the rocket exhaust of liftoff. Subsequent missions placed the flag farther from the lander to ensure they remained upright.
The LRO images clearly show that the Apollo 12, 16, and 17 flags are still intact on their flagpoles after half a century of exposure to harsh lunar environments. While it is true that there is no wind and weather on the Moon to damage the flags, unfiltered solar radiation and temperature extremes have not been kind to the flags.
The LRO has not yet captured the shadows of the Apollo 14 and 15 flags, so their status remains unknown. The extremes of the lunar environment may explain why the shadows of the Apollo 14 and 15 flags have not yet been identified.
Since the astronauts first unfurled the flags, they have endured 600 cycles of broiling +100C two Earth-week-long lunar days and equally long frigid -150C lunar nights. Unfiltered solar ultraviolet radiation on the airless lunar surface has likely bleached all the flags white. The radiation has rendered the nylon thread in the flags very brittle, and the Apollo 14 and 15 flags may have disintegrated. However, LRO photography has positively confirmed the Apollo 12, 16, and 17 flags are still erect on the Moon.