As most of you know, there has been much speculation about what causes the flag to swing a little bit in the video from Apollo 15, when Dave walks between the rover camera and the flag. Some have suggested that he touched it, but I have been skeptical of that.
Recently, someone pointed out to me another place where a flag does this. Watch the clip of the Apollo 16 jump salute. After Charlie's salute, just as he is turning around, it can be seen swinging like in the Apollo 15 clip. I watched Mark Grey's high quality video, which eliminates some of the glitchy video movement of objects.
No one was walking past the flag at that point, so no previously proposed explanations would apply: touching it, static electricity, or kicked dust. Of course, the hoax claim of an air wake from a passing astronaut couldn't apply, either.
Of all the hoax claims, this is the only one which seems to be an enigma. Obviously there is an explanation, but darned if I can guess what it is. There is always the possibility that some video artifact caused this, but I've studied this for over a couple of hours and I see nothing else seeming to move that way.
I wonder if this may be a continuation of that charged regolith "fountain," which at this time of lunar day may be so diffuse as to be undetectable. Perhaps one regolith particle could cause this much movement. It would require extremely little force. Disturbing the soil may trigger a greater flux of discharged particles.
