It is more than seen and proven that borders and flags sometimes become the focus of conflicts and enmities. Seeing our own planet from the outside, through the images taken by Artemis II, helps us understand that, deep down, we are all part of the same whole. A whole that still does not have its own flag. Therefore, for many years now and then someone has proposed a single flag for all of humanity. Now, with everything related to the trip to the Moon, the proposals are once again reaching social networks.
The first proposal. In 1970, an Illinois farmer named James Cadle, inspired by the landing of humans on the Moon on Apollo 11, decided to create a flag that represented our entire planet. The result was a simple flag, easy to reproduce, in which the Earth is seen as a blue marble, accompanied by a smaller white one, representing the Moon. The background was yellow and black, in honor of the Sun and the blackness of space. The flag was first raised on a rural power pole that Cadle himself climbed, but has since been part of several space projects.
More minimalist concepts. Continuing with the minimalist and, above all, unifying concepts, in 2000 the Danish designer Anne Kirstine Rønhede designed a new flag of the Earth. This time there was also a light blue marble, surrounded by a white border representing its atmosphere and a darker blue background representing the cosmos.
A symbol of unity. In 2015, Swedish designer Oskar Pernefeldt created another Earth flag. Seven linked circles are represented, one for each continent. It is hoped that it can be used as a symbol of Earth on future missions to Mars.
Science enters the scene. The arrival on the Moon of Artemis II has inspired more people to look for a flag that represents us as a planet. And since it was science that got us there, the most recent proposals focus precisely on it. The pioneers in this type of messages were Frank Drake and Carl Sagan, who in the 70s decided to compose messages that combined the scientific knowledge of humanity to launch them into space in search of possible intelligent life.
This is how the Pioneer Plaque emerged, a physical gold-anodized aluminum plate that was attached to the Pioneer 10 and 11 probes, in case an alien civilization intercepted the ship. To cover more space, they also designed a radio message, which was named the Arecibo message. It was a signal transmitted through the Arecibo radio telescope, hence its name.
A flag based on the Pioneer Plaque. Recently, the 2D and 3D designer braingrub has proposed on her X account an Earth flag based on one of the components of the Pioneer Plaque. This is the pulsar map, a diagram that indicates our exact location in the Milky Way. Pulsars are a type of star that is used to map space, because they emit radio rays at very regular and specific periods. Like a unique lighthouse.
On the map there are 14 lines that indicate different pulsars located around the Earth. Each line also contains symbols that indicate, in binary, the exact pulse of each of these pulsars. Thus, through its unique pulse, you can find those will do and, through the relative distance represented in the lines, find the Sun, which is the point at which all of them converge. From the Sun to the Earth, everything would be simpler for an intelligent civilization.
An ideal moment. It is not surprising that this is one of the most interesting Earth flag proposals that we can find on the Internet. Without a doubt, the concept is very suggestive, especially in a time when we increasingly see how much we lack unity as humanity.
Images | NASA | James Cadle |Anne Kirstine Rønhede | Oskar Pernefeldt |braingrub
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