Poop, flags and golf balls: Here's all the stuff that's left on the moon (2024)

FAQs

Did the astronauts leave poop on the moon? ›

The six Apollo missions that landed on the moon produced 96 bags of waste. According to the NASA History Office, white jettison bags, or trash bags, are definitely still on the moon, some containing astronaut poop.

Alan Shepard, part of the Apollo 14 mission, stands as the only person to hit golf balls on the moon. During the mission, Shepard took a few swings and ended up leaving two golf balls to live on the moon forever.

The flag that Apollo 17 left on the Moon was somewhat unique. It was a flag that went to the Moon and back on Apollo 11, hung on the wall in Mission Control until it made a return trip to the Moon, this time to stay. An identical flag made a round trip on Apollo 17 and now hangs in Mission Control.

It was important to lighten the load as they left the lunar surface. In the Apollo missions that followed, many things were left on the Moon, adding up to an estimated 400,000 pounds of stuff.

This discarded junk included, among other things, two golf balls, 12 cameras, 12 pairs of boots, a gold-plated telescope, and a total of 96 bags of 'human waste' – urine, faeces and vomit! Although not the best example of green thinking, this detritus will have had no permanent effect on the lunar environment.

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.

Images taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera more than 40 years later proved Aldrin right. Unlike the other Apollo sites, there is no longer an American flag still standing at the place where humankind first made contact with the lunar surface 50 years ago on July 20.

How many golf balls are on the moon? There are two golf balls on the moon, placed there by Alan Shepard, a NASA astronaut in the Apollo 14 mission in 1971.

Both flags (from the first and second flag-raisings) are now located in the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia.

No telescope on Earth or in Earth's orbit is large enough to see the flags on the Moon left by the Apollo astronauts. A telescope on Earth would have to be over 200 meters long (656 ft) in diameter to be able to see them.

Is there a Bible on the Moon? ›

Mitchell boarded the Apollo 14 he knew that if the mission was successful he would be just the 6th man to walk on the Moon. Boarding the aircraft with him, in his personal bag, lay copies of the King James Bible. Upon touchdown on 5 February 1971 they became the first scripture and published work to land on the Moon.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were responsible for many of the mementos placed on the surface of the moon to remember those who had been lost in space travel as well as unplanned debris left behind after they were instructed by mission control to lighten the load of their spacecraft in order to make it back home to ...

Calculations of the evolution of the Earth/Moon system tell us that with this rate of separation that in about 15 billion years the Moon will stop moving away from the Earth. Now, our Sun is expected to enter its Red Giant phase in about 6 to 7 billion years.

Water is heavy and hard to transport into orbit, which is why the International Space Station is a champion when it comes to recycling. Even astronaut urine is captured and processed to make it drinkable. The system that does this work is about to get an important upgrade.

Nasa astronauts don't just filter their own urine – they also use their Russian colleagues'. “We collect it in bags, and then the crew hauls it over to the US side,” Carter told Bloomberg. “We don't do 100% of the Russian urine. It depends on our time availability.”

Urine is boiled in the distillation assembly and delivered to the water processor, where it undergoes a cycle of filtration and chemical purification until it is usable by the crew – reducing costs associated with launching heavy water shipments to the station from Earth.

A tiny statue. Bags and bags of human waste of one flavor or another. And of course, American flags. It's all among the stuff that the dozen astronauts who walked on the moon between 1969 and 1972 left behind.

The moon's surface contains a new source of water found embedded in microscopic glass beads, which might one day help future astronauts produce drinking water, breathable air and rocket fuel, scientists say.

Space junk, or space debris, is any piece of machinery or debris left by humans in space. It can refer to big objects such as dead satellites that have failed or been left in orbit at the end of their mission. It can also refer to smaller things, like bits of debris or paint flecks that have fallen off a rocket.

Six flags were planted on the Moon – one for each Apollo landing. Apollo 11's flag was too close to the lander and was knocked over by the rocket exhaust when Armstrong and Aldrin took off again. But high resolution images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter show that the other five are still standing.

Is there a Russian flag on the Moon? ›

The spacecraft crash-landed on the surface of the moon, which was pre-planned, carrying the Soviet flag along with it. Technically, the Soviet flag was the first to reach the surface of the moon, where no man or machine had ever been before.

The Flag of Earth, designed by James W. Codle in 1970. It consists of a blue circle, representing the earth, on a black background.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter can resolve objects about 1 meter across and can just make out the flag left by Apollo 17 astronauts. Through a pair of good binoculars, the smallest crater you can see on the Moon is 10 km (6 mi) across.

Here's the inside story. Most golfers really want to avoid sand traps, but NASA astronaut Alan Shepard had no choice but to deal with one when wielding a six-iron head on the moon's dusty surface 50 years ago this month.

Analysis of lunar soil samples shows spheres of glass hold water inside them, scientists have said. Scientists say they have discovered water trapped inside tiny beads of glass scattered across the moon, suggesting a potential reservoir of this precious resource for future human activities on the lunar surface.

Some 50 years ago, Alan Shepard hit some golf balls on the Moon. Just how far could a tour pro hit a golf ball on the Moon if they weren't encumbered by a spacesuit? Alan Shepard shanked his first shot into a crater, but estimated that his second reached a distance of about 600 feet (183 meters).

China is limited by international space law

If China tried to do this, it would risk international condemnation and a potential international retaliatory response. While no country can claim ownership of the moon, Article I of the Outer Space Treaty allows any state to explore and use outer space and celestial bodies.

United States Army Field Flag

A white replica of the War Office Seal set on a blue field. Beneath the seal is a broad white scroll bearing the inscription in scarlet letters, "UNITED STATES ARMY". Beneath the scroll, in white sans serif Arabic numerals, is "1775". The flag was officially adopted by President Dwight D.

Flown over the military stores at Bennington on August 16, 1777 when General John Stark's militia led Americans to victory over British raiding force. The original flag is preserved in the Bennington, Vermont Museum.

Lindberg was the last survivor of the first flag-raising on Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi. But his moment was overshadowed by a second flag-raising. He spent a lifetime correcting the record.

How many US flags are on the Moon? ›

"Over the course of the Apollo program, our astronauts deployed six American flags on the moon. For 40-odd years, the flags have been exposed to the full fury of the moon's environment – alternating 14 days of searing sunlight and 100° C heat with 14 days of numbing-cold -150° C darkness.

Unfortunately, there is no telescope on Earth powerful enough to spot any of the objects that have been left behind. Not even the Hubble could see what's left on the moon. It's designed to collect faint light of galaxies and nebulas, not objects on the moon.

Even on Earth, the colors of a cloth flag flown in bright sunlight for many years will eventually fade and need to be replaced. So it is likely that these symbols of American achievement have been rendered blank, bleached white by the UV radiation of unfiltered sunlight on the lunar surface.

Biblical references use the moon symbol to highlight cosmic events, divine epiphanies and the ephemeral nature of human life and history (see, for example, Isaiah 30,26; 60,19; Revelations 21,23).

Those who claim that Allah is a pagan deity, most notably the moon god, often base their claims on the fact that a symbol of the crescent moon adorns the tops of many mosques and is widely used as a symbol of Islam.

For Muslims around the world, Ramadan is the holiest month in Islam, a time of prayer and daily fasting, as well as celebration. The start of Ramadan is signaled by the sighting of the crescent moon (hilal).

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.

Most of the 842 pounds of lunar rocks and soil brought back to Earth by the 12 astronauts to walk on the moon remain in NASA's hands.

To date, only one country has succeeded in landing humans on the moon: the United States of America. As part of the Apollo space program, the United States has landed a total of 12 astronauts.

So why haven't astronauts been back to the moon in 50 years? "It was the political risks that prevented it from happening," Bridenstine said. "The program took too long and it costs too much money." Researchers and entrepreneurs have long pushed for the creation of a crewed base on the moon — a lunar space station.

What was the Earth before the Moon? ›

Before Earth and the Moon, there were proto-Earth and Theia (a roughly Mars-sized planet). The giant-impact model suggests that at some point in Earth's very early history, these two bodies collided.

It takes about 3 days for a spacecraft to reach the Moon. During that time a spacecraft travels at least 240,000 miles (386,400 kilometers) which is the distance between Earth and the Moon.

Tang was a portable, easy solution to keep Glenn and his compatriots hydrated, and their taste buds satisfied. When Glenn took Tang into space aboard Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962, he became the first human — and it the first soft drink — to orbit Earth.

How did Apollo astronauts sleep? The astronauts slept in 'sleep restraints', which were sleeping bags tied to the command module's cabin to stop them floating about. Restraints were tied under the left and right seats, and also above the right seat. They could be rolled up and stored when not in use.

Sound waves need a medium to travel. As there is no atmosphere or medium on the moon, that's why no sound can be heard on the moon. Astronauts use radio waves while talking to one another on the surface of the moon.

Four astronauts on the International Space Station can create over 2.5 tons of trash per year, but how to get rid of that garbage has been an ongoing struggle. At the low-Earth orbiting laboratory, astronauts tested a new technology last week that could become a go-to solution for space waste disposal in the future.

The bubbles of carbon dioxide in carbonated beverages aren't buoyant in a weightless environment, so they remain randomly distributed throughout the fluid, even after swallowing. This means that carbonated beverages including soft drinks and beer may become a foamy mess during space travel.

“Alcohol is not permitted onboard the International Space Station for consumption,” says Daniel G Huot, spokesperson for Nasa's Johnson Space Center. “Use of alcohol and other volatile compounds are controlled on ISS due to impacts their compounds can have on the station's water recovery system.”

Space has no "up" or "down," but it does have microgravity. As a result, astronauts are weightless and can sleep in any orientation. However, they have to attach themselves so they don't float around and bump into something. Space station crews usually sleep in sleeping bags located in small crew cabins.

Even though astronauts are allotted about 8.5 hours for sleep every day, many of them have reported needing only about 6 hours to feel fully rested. Some specialists believe that this is because the body tires less quickly in weightlessness: the muscles don't have to work as hard as on Earth.

How do astronauts sleep for years? ›

The astronauts sleep in small sleeping compartments by using sleeping bags. They strap their bodies loosely so that their bodies will not float around. In the zero-gravity world, there are no "ups" or "downs".

Explanation: No, they can not hear each other on the moon. It is because there is no atmosphere (or medium) on the moon, and the sound needs a medium to travel.

We all know that in space there is no medium in which sound can travel. There is no solid, no liquid and no gas. So, on the moon, we cannot hear any sound. Therefore, astronauts communicate with each other by signals or microphones in space even they are closer.

The moon does not have atmosphere. Since there is no medium which is necessary for generation and propagation of sound, between the astronauts, direct sound propagation between them is not possible.

"Anatomically and biologically," Baylor space medicine expert Jennifer Fogarty told the site, "there are no known impediments to human conception in space."

Female astronauts do generally wear bras in space. Although, bras are not commonly worn for their primary purpose - offering support. Instead, female astronauts will typically wear bras for comfort, and to protect their modesty from male astronauts and the various cameras throughout the space station.

If a child has ever been conceived in space, it was definitely off the clock. No-one has ever had sex in space, much less got themselves pregnant, according to both NASA and the Russian Space Agency. Spacecraft are crowded and cramped, with virtually no privacy.