New flag for Mars?

[NSEP]

For anyone who didn't know yet, Mars has a flag, i dont know if it is official, but it looks like this:

The red field means Mars now, and the green and blue mean the eventual terraformed Mars. The problem is: We dont know if we are actually going to terraform Mars. It's like adding a World map to a flag, representing world conquest, while the nation has never conquered the world. This map is maybe suitable for when we actually terraformed Mars, but not now.

What do you think?

Oh and another thing to note: This is not really a thread about making a change, it is just a thought experiment thread thing.

[Tex_NL]

I did a Google search on the image and it indeed identified it as something to do with Mars. But it's nothing new. I found references as old as may 2011 (2004 after some digging). And all but one of the articles found were in Russian.

[NSEP]

24 minutes ago, Tex_NL said:

I did a Google search on the image and it indeed identified it as something to do with Mars. But it's nothing new. I found references as old as may 2011 (2004 after some digging). And all but one of the articles found were in Russian.

I read on Wikipedia that it originates from 1998 and it was designed by NASA scientist Pascal Lee.

Edited January 8, 2017 by NSEP

[Scotius]

It's ugly. It looks like a cheap kitchen towel. And there is nothing even remotely suggesting "Mars" when you look at it - because that red stripe isn't cutting it at all.

 

Edited January 8, 2017 by Frybert
Please don't reaction image.

[NSEP]

1 hour ago, Scotius said:

It's ugly. It looks like a cheap kitchen towel. And there is nothing even remotely suggesting "Mars" when you look at it - because that red stripe isn't cutting it at all.

 

I agree, but the flag is still easy to reconize, wich is really important with flags.

Edited January 8, 2017 by Frybert

[Scotius]

Yes. but recognizable like this:

Three stripes of clashing colours? There are dozens of countries on Earth using similiar scheme - this one will simply disappear into the crowd, never to be seen again

[NSEP]

9 minutes ago, Scotius said:

Yes. but recognizable like this:

Three stripes of clashing colours? There are dozens of countries on Earth using similiar scheme - this one will simply disappear into the crowd, never to be seen again

Well, three stripes is easier to recoginze from far away than the European flag from far away. Thats a main rule in flag designing. From far away, some flags look strikingly simulair or just a flag with 1 color. Symbols also need to be simple, for again, be regonizable from for away and not be a smudge.

Edited January 8, 2017 by NSEP

[Tex_NL]

Both ON and OFF topic:

 

[YNM]

Looks more like test picture to me, that flag. Double purpose I suppose ?

[Elthy]

Since its not official its about as usefull as any paint image. Before we have a permanent settlement on mars everything regarding martionan flags is just nonsense...

Once we have a permanent mars settlement the people living there will make the decision, or someone at e.g. the UN.

[Shpaget]

2 hours ago, NSEP said:

I read on Wikipedia that it originates from 1998 and it was designed by NASA scientist Pascal Lee.

Guess he's a huge fan of Kim Stanley Robinson.

[kerbiloid]

3 hours ago, Scotius said:

It looks like a cheap kitchen towel.

This! Towel. A symbol of the humankind expansion through the space.

Quote

A towel is just about the most massively useful thing any interstellar Hitchhiker can carry.

 

A simple flag doesn't express enough the technical progress of the humanity.

It would be at least animated (by its definition: say,
"The national flag of the Martian Unity is an animated rectangle, containinng three coloured vertical bars (rgb, rgb, rgb), swapping around, with frame rate 5 fps.
It's colors represent the future history of Mars, the greatest wishes of its future people: fresh tomatoes, green* (not orange) landscape, a pool full of blue water to take a bath".

*green  - obsolete (on Mars) color, similar to the color of a indicator lamp under normal conditions.

2 hours ago, YNM said:

Looks more like test picture to me, that flag. Double purpose I suppose ?

And a trolling of earthlings. Every TV on the Earth shows the Martian State Flag.

[GDJ]

I like this one.

[kerbiloid]

Reminds me of Forrest Gump movie.

Spoiler

 

[JetJaguar]

5 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

This! Towel. A symbol of the humankind expansion through the space.

Well, if you're going to be exploring space, you should always know where your towel is.

[Ozymandias_the_Goat]

Put this on your flag!

[John22]

14 hours ago, NSEP said:

 

The design of the flag was originally conceived by NASA planetary scientist Pascal Lee during 1998. In addition to symbolizing liberty as a tricolor flag, the design evokes a vision of the "future history" of Mars in which the planet is transformed from red, to green, and then blue like the Earth.  There is no official flag for Mars because there is no government or other authority in existence capable of adopting such a flag.

 

[Wjolcz]

Not like Earth has a flag either.

It would be nice to see the UN flag being planted in Martian soil.. That's never going to happen though lol.

[Streetwind]

Well, for Earth to have an official flag, you'd first have to establish an authority that has the right to make it official - a right it would have to obtain through being recognized and accepted by every country on Earth. No such organization exists today; even the United Nations aren't that universally recognized.

On the upside, though, that's one problem that Mars won't have, or any other world or other orbital structure we colonize. We're starting them off fresh, so there's a reasonable likelyhood that it will be done in an at least somewhat structured manner. People are already pondering today how such a new colony might be governed, for example. Right now that is still idle speculation, but you can bet that that kind of thing will ramp up massively in both relevancy and quality once the first semi-permanent crew is training for their mission.

So in my opinion, we'll get an officially recognized Mars flag before we ever get an officially recognized Earth flag   If anything, Earth needs an official Mars flag as a boot to the butt to get its business in order! I have to agree with the overall sentiment in this thread though: that three-color piece of questionable artistic merit in the opening post is not something I'd vote for in any flag. Mars or otherwise.

Edited January 9, 2017 by Streetwind

[wumpus]

Wiki has a picture of the flag used in "Stranger in a Strange Land" (a flag hastily made to fit legal and political realities of the book, not to be taken seriously even *inside* the book in question).

[Findthepin1]

It shouldn't be up to anybody on Earth to decide what Mars' flag is. That's for colonists to decide. 

Edited January 9, 2017 by Findthepin1

[Mitchz95]

9 hours ago, wumpus said:

Wiki has a picture of the flag used in "Stranger in a Strange Land" (a flag hastily made to fit legal and political realities of the book, not to be taken seriously even *inside* the book in question).

You know, that's not bad. I could get behind that one.

[kerbiloid]

6 hours ago, Findthepin1 said:

It shouldn't be up to anybody on Earth to decide what Mars' flag is. That's for colonists to decide. 

Whatever they decide, it will be pale orange. Orange as omnipresent dust and pale because sun-bleached.

Martian Republic state anthem: 50 Shades of Pale Orange.

9 hours ago, wumpus said:

"Steal a rocket and scram to Earth"