What would happen if a country put a man on the moon then removed the American flag and replaced it with theirs?
The US flags left on the Moon nearly 50 years ago have been exposed to some startling amounts of radiation from the Sun all that time. There is no protective atmosphere, so they will have lasted for worse than any regular flag would do after 50 years outdoors on Earth. The radiation will have destroyed the fibers over time, much like UV radiation does on Earth, but about 50 times worse.So imagine a regular flag left in the sun on earth for about 250 years. Do you think it would have survived?The flags on the Moon will now be a few faded shreds of fibre and mostly dust now. The only reason anyone would know they were once a flag will be because of the known history.Any nation that can get a person onto the Moon is unlikely to choose a site near any of the old Apollo sites. They would go somewhere new. But if anyone did visit the sites, knowing the effort required to get their person to the Moon and what was needed to get the Apollo astronauts to the Moon, I suspect the Apollo sites would be considered to be ‘sacred sites,’ and off-limits for general activities.The placement of the flag is purely symbolic. No nation can claim the Moon, and the US certainly didn’t. The flag was a signal to everyone back home that as a nation they had succeeded in an adventure in exploration that is without parallel in human endeavor (so far). The US collectively paid for it and did the hard work. The flag was a symbol of success for everyone back home.
Why do 27% of the Americans not believe that American astronauts landed on the moon?
Because it's a great story. People love a good conspiracy theory and this is one of the all time greats. America and Russia were locked in a desperate battle to prove themselves in the Cold War. The Space Race was a real race to reach the ultimate prize and achieve boasting rights for ever. First nation on the moon. A flag planted and instantly one of the most famous photographs of all time commemorates your nation's achievements forever. And then clever America, who have the best cinema industry on the planet, realise that going to to the moon is hard, but making movies is easy. So a crack team of CIA agents employ some Hollywood moguls and together they perpetrate the greatest forgery in human history. They fake a moon landing. They build their own set complete with elaborate fake moon landers, They doctor some photos and some video footage and they manage to fool the entire planet into thinking two guys were on the moon. The USA has a massive morale boost, the USSR gets kicked in the teeth and the whole thing is a triumph. But then years later some people start to realise that things are fishy. Some of the science doesn't quite add up. There are anomalies that need to be addressed. And then brave truth-seekers attempt to liberate the fiction despite attempts to keep them silent.It's a brilliant story and you can see why so many people want to believe it. It plays into the idea that the Cold War was a lunatic and crazy time, that the CIA would do anything to get an advantage and that the American people don't really know what their government gets up to. There are no deaths to feel bad about, no innocent victims, just a fantastic hoax, and who doesn't love a good hoax?People's desire to believe something will often trump the truth. The need to believe something is correct will allow people to disregard the facts. Scientists have answered every single one of the "anomalies" that conspiracy theorists have put forward which is more than enough to settle the minds of someone who approaches the subject with an open mind. But those who need to believe are never satisfied. As Robert Frost has pointed out, the numbers aren't as high as 27%. But there are enough people out there who have a need to believe that trumps their ability to objectively weigh factual evidence, and this will always be the case.