I'm not at all sure about any of this, and I don't remember what the flag and the "moon buggy" were made of, ie, the kinds of metals or plastics.
On the moon they would be protected from wind and water and oxidative decay. But still, because of the lack of atmosphere, the lunar surface becomes very hot during it's "day" and extremely cold during it's "night". I don't know the range of these temperature extremes, but this causes most metals,etc. to expand and contract. That over 5 million years caused me to have second thoughts about Essans prediction.
But I don't know for sure.
