A thought on Apollo flags

[lajoswinkler]

You know how people thought all those flags are now white and fragile to the point of crumpling on slightest touch?

It came to me few hours ago that even though the colors had to be bleached rather fast, it probably didn't take a long time before they turned black. Why black? Because they were made out of nylon, a polyamide, which is an organic compound, most of which is carbon chains. And we know what happens to plastics under the conditions of high temperature and full ultraviolet spectrum - they outgass and then slowly turn to soot as the radicals are blasted away from the chains.

Nylon is one of the weakest artificial polymers in this regard.

And because of the increasing darkness of the flag, each lunar day would impart a higher temperature to the nylon, accelerating the total carbonization which is, overall, photochemical, not high temperature like dry distillation.

 

Thoughts on this? What do you think was the timespan before they started looking black like charcoal?

Edited August 7, 2019 by lajoswinkler

[mikegarrison]

So you are saying there are pirate flags on the moon now? Cool.

[kerbiloid]

They have two sides. Maybe they are now double-colored.

Btw, were the flagsticks oriented same way or randomly?

P.S.
If you fly to the Moon, you can write or draw something with invisible but UV-protecting inks, and 50 years later they can see a black flag with your graffiti.

Edited August 7, 2019 by kerbiloid

[mikegarrison]

5 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

Btw, were the flagsticks oriented same way or randomly?

Would it matter? Sun moves around in the sky on the moon like it does on the earth, only more slowly.

[kerbiloid]

14 minutes ago, mikegarrison said:

Would it matter? Sun moves around in the sky on the moon like it does on the earth, only more slowly.

Here, on the Earth, the Sun never shines from North, to the North from 23.5° N.

(I don't know, if something like that we can see on the Moon, though, never thought about it)

Upd.
Though, a crater wall could shade it sometimes anyway, from the same direction.

Edited August 7, 2019 by kerbiloid

[lajoswinkler]

20 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

They have two sides. Maybe they are now double-colored.

Btw, were the flagsticks oriented same way or randomly?

P.S.
If you fly to the Moon, you can write or draw something with invisible but UV-protecting inks, and 50 years later they can see a black flag with your graffiti.

Good question. AFAIK they were not randomly oriented, at least not for all missions. Astronauts practiced photography to get good shots. It would take some decent geometry and digging data to figure out the orientation and impact of the rays. Still, after all these years, I think it's safe to expect they're all thoroughly wrecked.

We know that all but one are still standing. Turning to carbon means losing some mass. I can imagine some warping has occured, too.

[cubinator]

So we've learned that engravings on metal/stone are the way to go for leaving messages on other worlds.

[mikegarrison]

56 minutes ago, cubinator said:

So we've learned that engravings on metal/stone are the way to go for leaving messages on other worlds.

Only worlds without weather.

[kerbiloid]

An engraved ceramic artifact buried underground.
Visible simple marks (regular pattern of stones) on surface as a sign "Dig here!".
Radioactive dust, both to make primitive sapient forms keep away, and to attract a developed form attention.

Wait... Oh, ...

Spoiler

Edited August 8, 2019 by kerbiloid

[DDE]

7 hours ago, mikegarrison said:

Only worlds without weather.

Challenge accepted.

Venera ‘payloads’.

13 hours ago, mikegarrison said:

So you are saying there are pirate flags on the moon now? Cool.

I’m afraid that would more closely remind me of several Rule 2-noncompliant groups.

[kerbiloid]

3 hours ago, DDE said:

Challenge accepted.

 

Spoiler