China becomes second nation to plant flag on the Moon

[left-of-center2012]

The pictures from China's National Space Administration show the five-starred Red Flag holding still on the windless lunar surface. The fabric flag was unfurled by the Chang'e-5 lander vehicle just before its ascender vehicle took off using the lander as a launchpad.

They were taken by a camera on the Chang'e-5 space probe before it left the Moon with rock samples on Thursday. It has taken soil and rock samples to China's lunar orbiter 15km (nine miles) above the lunar surface - which will then be enclosed in a module that will be aimed at China's Inner Mongolia region.

The Chang'e-5 mission is China's third successful landing on the Moon in seven years.

The US planted the first flag on the Moon during the manned Apollo 11 mission in 1969. Five further US flags were planted on the lunar surface during subsequent missions up until 1972.



https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55192692

[underpants]

1. 🇺🇸

[Brother Buzz]

2. LOL!

[underpants]

5. 🥤

[KS Toronado]

3. Fake news, there's no wind on the moon.

[left-of-center2012]

10. From the linked article :

"The pictures from China's National Space Administration show the five-starred Red Flag holding still on the windless lunar surface."

[treestar]

4. Seems it is unmanned.

Kind of hilarious to think of the moon getting covered in flags

[tritsofme]

6. I must admit that image is a bit jarring.

[Hortensis]

7. Congrats to pleased Chinese everywhere. :) nt

[PCIntern]

8. If you look carefully

you can see Stanley Kubrick’s visage outlined on the flag.

[Saboburns]

9. All flags turn white on the moon.

Last edited Fri Dec 4, 2020, 06:41 PM - Edit history (1)

Only takes a month or so. And personally I get a kick out of them turning white, the universal surrender color.

Without an atmosphere, unfiltered sunlight bleaches all color out very quickly. UV rays you know.

Anyway I'm not a fan of jingoism, so this makes me happy.

[left-of-center2012]

11. From the linked article :

In 2012 Nasa cited satellite images as showing that five of the flags were still standing,
but experts quoted in media reports say they are likely to have been bleached white by the sun's glare.

[malaise]

15. Ditto

The moon belongs to all of us

[JHB]

17. It takes a bit longer than "a moment"

It certainly takes more than a few days, since the Apollo flags were still red, white, and blue when the various ascent modules took off. There were no reports of significant fading over the few days the longest missions were there.

But over the course of 50 years, pretty likely, though even that is an educated guess. There's imagery with enough resolution to detect them (or maybe their lengthened shadows), but I don't think there's anything that has a close look at the flags themselves.

[relayerbob]

12. Well, except for the USSR

But who's counting?

[left-of-center2012]

13. Russia did not 'plant' a flag on the Moon

No Russian nor Russian vehicle stuck a flag into the Lunar surface.

[relayerbob]

14. Then neither did China. They unfurled it from a lander

The USSR landed the first spacecraft on the Moon, and it had the Soviet emblems on it.

The whole concept of "planting a flag" is a ludricrous nationalist concept anyway. Who cares? The Chinese have done a great job with their space program. Careful, slow and planned with long term goals in mind

[left-of-center2012]

16. Here you go ...

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[brachism]

18. Eddie Izzard "Do You Have a Flag?"