Scientists at Arizona State University studied photos taken at different times of day and saw shadows of the flags around the poles. While the flags are still there, it's doubtful whether the distinctive stars and stripes are still visible, said ASU professor Mark Robinson, the chief scientist for the cameras.
Unfortunately, not every Apollo mission made it to the Moon. Apollo 13 was intended to be a lunar landing mission, but an explosion in one of the oxygen tanks forced the crew to abort their landing and return home. In total, there are six American flags on the moon.
Some of it is waste from the trip that the astronauts dumped when they got to their destination. Aside from trash—from food packaging to wet wipes—nearly 100 packets of human urine and excrement have been discarded. The Apollo astronauts also dumped tools and television equipment that they no longer needed.
So can Hubble see the flagpole on the Moon? The answer is no, it cannot. The highest resolution that Hubble can achieve is about 0.03 arcseconds using its Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) array of cameras. The smallest object on the Moon that Hubble could observe is about the size of a football field.
The global commendations poured in as China's Chang'e-5 probe successfully planted a flag on the surface of the moon, becoming the first country since the 1972 US Apollo missions to achieve such a feat.
James Irwin, an Apollo 15 astronaut, left a bible on the dashboard of his mission's buggy. The most recent rover to shut down on the moon was China's Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, which has not been heard from since 2015.
Roger Launius, the former NASA chief historian and a former senior curator at the National Air and Space Museum, agreed, saying, “there is no evidence to support the assertion that he left a bracelet of his daughter on the moon.” Though apparently fiction, the moment is a critical one.
Since only the upper stages of the lunar excursion modules could return to lunar orbit from the surface, the vehicles, along with the lower stages were abandoned. As a result, the only lunar rovers on display are LRV-4, test vehicles, trainers, and mock-ups.
China was late to the space race – it didn't send its first satellite into orbit until 1970, by which time the United States had already landed an astronaut on the moon – but Beijing has been catching up fast. In 2013, China successfully landed a rover on the moon, becoming only the third country to do so.
Of the Moon landings, Luna 2 of the Soviet Union was the first spacecraft to reach its surface successfully, intentionally impacting the Moon on 13 September 1959. In 1966, Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to achieve a controlled soft landing, while Luna 10 became the first mission to enter orbit.
The first animal to make an orbital spaceflight around the Earth was the dog Laika, aboard the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2 on 3 November 1957.
The United States is the only country to have successfully conducted crewed missions to the Moon, with the last departing the lunar surface in December 1972.
So, why haven't they sent humans back to the moon yet? The two primary causes are money and priorities. The race to put people on the moon was sparked in 1962 by US President John F. Kennedy's 'We Choose to Go to the Moon' address, in which he pledged that by the end of the decade, an American would walk on the moon'.
There are five reflecting panels on the Moon. Two were delivered by Apollo 11 and 14 crews in 1969 and 1971, respectively.
Neil Armstrong's Salary
At the time of the Apollo 11 flight in 1969, Neil Armstrong was paid a salary of $27,401 and was the highest paid of the flying astronauts, according to the Boston Herald. That translates to $190,684 in 2019 dollars.
Twelve people have walked on Earth's Moon. The first one was Neil Armstrong and the last one was Gene Cernan. All crewed moon landings took place between July 1969 and December 1972 as part of the United States Apollo program.
After leaving NASA, he joined the faculty of the University of Cincinnati as a professor of aerospace engineering. Armstrong remained at the university for eight years. Staying active in his field, he served as the chairman of Computing Technologies for Aviation, Inc., from 1982 to 1992.
But at the same time, the Moon itself pulls the Earth due to its own gravitational field. Because of this pull by the Moon, the tidal waves rise, and the Moon gets a kick-back effect, similar to the recoil of a gun. This is the reason the Moon is drifting away.
It wasn't the first time however, that the bibles had been in space, let alone to the moon. The 300, together with 212 more, first flew on Apollo 13 in April 1970, but as a mid- flight explosion prevented a lunar landing, Stout requested the bibles fly again on Apollo 14.
The Outer Space Treaty
There is no claim for sovereignty in space; no nation can “own” space, the Moon or any other body. Weapons of mass destruction are forbidden in orbit and beyond, and the Moon, the planets, and other celestial bodies can only be used for peaceful purposes.
The Outer Space Treaty means therefore that - no matter whose national flags are planted on the lunar surface - no nation can 'own' the Moon.
21 July 1969
For many years, the Soviets led this 'space race', sending the first man, Yuri Gagarin, to orbit the earth on April 13, 1961. But the US was the first country to send men to the moon. The iconic moon landing took place on 21 July 1969.