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55 years ago today, it took Apollo 11 just 10 minutes to raise its flag on the ancient lunar surface. Neil Armstrong‘Annual Buzz AldrinThe two and a half hour moonwalk adventure that took place in July 1969.
But this pioneering event in the history of flagology did not come without much debate, discussion, and early anxiety, culminating in the question of “Who owns the Moon?” being hung on the political flagpole. (Vexillology is the study of the history, symbolism, and use of flags.)
Matthew Ward is a senior lecturer in history at the University of Dundee in Scotland. He notes that the American flag is a powerfully visible feature, seemingly present in imagery of almost every major event in American history, from the Apollo moon landing to firefighters raising the flag over the ruins of the World Trade Center on 9/11 in 2001. “It’s hard to think of another flag that’s so heavily invested in meaning. The Stars and Stripes expresses the spirit, history and identity of an entire nation,” Ward says.
Symbolic activity
In the early 1990s, Anne Platoff, then working at Hernandez Engineering Inc. in Houston, Texas, prepared a NASA contractor report titled “Where No Flag Has Fallen Before: Political and Technical Aspects of Planting a Flag on the Moon.”
Platoff explains that the Apollo 11 flag-raising on the Moon was strictly a symbolic event. Given that the United States was a signatory to the United Nations Outer Space Treaty, the signing of this treaty precluded any territorial claims to the Moon.
“Still, there was domestic and international debate about the appropriateness of the event,” Platoff explains. Congress amended NASA’s appropriations bill to prevent the space agency from flying flags of other nations or international associations on the moon during missions funded solely by the United States.
Platoff made it clear in his report that the legal status of the Moon would not be affected by the presence of a U.S. flag on the lunar surface, but noted that “NASA is aware of the international controversy that could arise as a result.”
Flagpole design
Platoff points out in his report that raising the Apollo flag also presented technical challenges to NASA engineers.
“To overcome the effects of the Moon’s lack of atmosphere, they designed a flagpole with a horizontal bar that allowed the flag to ‘fly’ without the benefit of wind. Other design considerations were weight, heat resistance, and ease of assembly by astronauts, whose spacesuits restricted their range of motion and ability to grasp objects,” Platoff explains.
Buzz Aldrin of Apollo 11 later described it in an article he wrote: Life According to the magazine, when the moonwalker looked at the flag, he felt “at that moment, all the people of the world were almost mystically united.”
Aldrin also described what happened when he and Armstrong managed to hang the flag, which was purchased in Houston for $5.50.
“Just below the dusty surface, the subsoil was very dense,” Aldrin recalled. “We were only able to push the flagpole in a few inches. It didn’t look very solid.”
Sun Decay
Through his research, Platoff discovered that the six flags placed on the Moon by the Apollo moonwalkers were not all the same size.
Also notable was the Apollo 17 flag raised in December 1972, the program’s final lunar mission; it had been displayed in the Mission Operations Control Room during other Apollo missions and was later placed on the Moon by Eugene Cernan and Jack Schmitt, the final moonwalkers.
What is not known is the current condition of the flags. Even if the flags were still standing when the crew launched from the moon, they are almost certainly not in the same condition as when they were first placed on the lunar surface. “Most likely, the nylon of the flag has deteriorated as a result of prolonged exposure to sunlight,” Platoff feels, a devastating result labeled “sun rot.”
It’s possible that the moon flags have become brittle and disintegrated over time. Platoff concludes that another damaging threat to the moon flags is bombardment from mid-lunar meteoroid impacts.
Platoff currently works as a librarian, historian, and encyclopedia at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
“One thing I’ve seen in articles is that flags will bleach from exposure to sunlight. While that happens in some flags on Earth, I’m not sure what the chemical process is and whether it would happen in a lunar environment,” Platoff told Space.com.
Wanted: critical thinking
As Platoff wrote in his 2011 research paper, “Six Flags on the Moon: The Role of Flags in Moon Landing Conspiracy Theories,” whether the flags survive or are exposed to the harsh lunar environment for decades, “their legacy as a symbol of human exploration of space remains intact.”
The significance of these images, Platoff said, “will continue long after the deaths of those involved in this historic endeavor.”
As for those who support the Apollo Moon landing conspiracy theory, Platoff is adamant on the subject.
“The moon landing hoax conspiracy is not hard to debunk,” Platoff told Space.com. “There is a wealth of evidence to prove that the Apollo landings were real and that humans walked on the lunar surface.”
The real problem, Platoff says, is the need to teach people to think critically.
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“Do you really think it was possible for the level of cooperation of everyone involved in the Apollo Program to maintain this deception for fifty-five years? Or is it more plausible that people working together, using the power of science and technology, achieved the goal of landing astronauts on the moon and bringing them home safely?”
Platoff concludes that those who deny that the Apollo Moon landing occurred are “free to believe whatever they want, but that doesn’t make them right.”