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RoterFuchs1994 t1_irxwssu wrote

Reply to comment by AmishRocket in Museum shows off Taiwan flag which went to the moon on Apollo 11 by Pure_Candidate_3831

How much weight would that have added?

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freiheitfitness t1_irxyxri wrote

The entire flag kit (which included 25 US flags along with 6x4” flags of 136 nations, UN Organization, 50 United States) was .75lbs.

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RoterFuchs1994 t1_iry783k wrote

Less than a pound? That's amazing.

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AmishRocket t1_irzfatd wrote

Yes, but …

They had other material in the official kits as well, such as beta crew patches, additional flags, etc. And each astronaut was allowed a small inventory of personal artifacts for which there isn’t a manifest. Considering Neil and Buzz left their boots on the lunar surface due to weight concerns, you get an idea of how critical every pound was.

After the enormous treasure and lives lost to get the crew to the moon, they returned with less than 50 pounds of lunar rocks and soil crammed into their little capsule. Precious little. (There is a legend that all three were told if any of them gained five pounds before the flight, they would be scrubbed from the mission.)

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Emble12 t1_irzgmdy wrote

How did they get the boots outside if there wasn’t an airlock on the LM?

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danzelectric t1_is0lw1z wrote

Most called them moon boots. They slipped over the shoes worn in the spaceship, like galoshes for the rain

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Emble12 t1_is0m31l wrote

Ah, so they weren’t pressurised?

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AmishRocket t1_is0n1oq wrote

Nope. The boots were overshoes. Something like galoshes that gave them extra protection and traction while walking on the moon. (But I like to think they could just toss things out of the lunar lander’s screen door. /s)

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AmishRocket t1_irxyrqd wrote

I don’t have that info. But that’s why most of the trinkets like this flag stayed with Mike Collins. The lunar lander didn’t have the capacity (room or fuel) to take them all the way to the moon’s surface and back. I mean, Buzz and Neil left lots of equipment and waste on the lunar surface just so they’d be able to get the lunar samples back to rendezvous.

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skeith2011 t1_irxzob2 wrote

So a cotton shirt weighs about 5oz on average, which is 0.3125 pounds. Let’s say that the flag would take only 20% (i.e. 1 shirt makes 5 flags) of the shirt fabric to make one, which gives 0.0625 pounds.

In 1969 when Apollo 11 launched, there were 126 nations in the UN. Adding the 50 states gives a total amount of 176 flags on board the spacecraft.

176 flags times 0.0625 pounds per flag gives 11 pounds total. Kind of a negligible amount.

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giant2179 t1_irxz9ej wrote

Here's my best guesstimate: the flag looks pretty small, maybe 9" max on each side. The lightest weight cotton cloth for handkerchief is around 3 oz/sq yd. (135 countries+50 states)/16 flags/sq.yd.*3oz/yd=34.7oz or roughly one kilogram. So not a lot, but not trivial in terms of space travel. Also much lighter than one lunar flag kit for the American flag that was planted, which weighed 4.3kg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Flag_Assembly

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