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Author Topic:   The International Flag of Planet Earth (proposal)
Robert Pearlman
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Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 05-19-2015 09:07 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Swedish student Oskar Pernefeldt has proposed The International Flag of Earth as a graduation project at Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm.
Current expeditions in outer space use different national flags depending on which country is funding the voyage. The space travelers, however, are more than just representatives of their own countries.

They are representatives of planet Earth.

Purpose of the Flag

  1. To be used while representing planet Earth.

  2. To remind the people of Earth that we share this planet, no matter of national boundaries. That we should take care of each other and the planet we live on.

This isn't the first Flag of the Earth to be proposed.

James913
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Posts: 265
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Oct 2004

posted 05-19-2015 11:32 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for James913   Click Here to Email James913     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Gee, I thought we had already picked one...

onesmallstep
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Posts: 1310
From: Staten Island, New York USA
Registered: Nov 2007

posted 05-19-2015 03:57 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for onesmallstep   Click Here to Email onesmallstep     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Haha good one. I'm sure people will counter with something akin to the United Federation of Planets. As for me; I think the flag smacks a little like the rings on the Olympic flag and really doesn't depict or allude to planet earth itself (maybe an image of both hemispheres as seen from space?).

Being such an ephemeral artifact, maybe they should consider making any 'flag' out of metal to survive exposure to extreme sunlight and radiation.

randy
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Posts: 2176
From: West Jordan, Utah USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 05-19-2015 09:04 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for randy   Click Here to Email randy     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I thought the UN flag was considered the flag of the Earth.

Cozmosis22
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Posts: 968
From: Texas * Earth
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 05-19-2015 09:30 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Cozmosis22     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
A silly idea but a nice project for an art student. And no, the United Nations flag is not the "flag of the earth."

dogcrew5369
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Posts: 750
From: Statesville, NC
Registered: Mar 2009

posted 05-30-2015 08:35 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for dogcrew5369   Click Here to Email dogcrew5369     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
One thing came to mind - new world order. I prefer national flags. So if we partner one day with other nations to maybe go to Mars will the United States flag be planted there? I hope so. Just my thought as an American.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 05-30-2015 10:17 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Though we only planted the U.S. flag, every Apollo mission to land on the moon carried the flags of more than 100 nations and the United Nations.

That said, I hope by the time we're ready to go to Mars, we're beyond planting any flag. Apollo ended because it was a "flags and footprints" program.

Blackarrow
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Posts: 3118
From: Belfast, United Kingdom
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 05-30-2015 01:25 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blackarrow     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
President Kennedy's goal of "...landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" technically did not require either a flag or footprints. Those were added to the basic idea of landing. But a great deal more was added, too. I doubt if Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt, while sampling the famous "orange soil" at Shorty Crater, would have agreed that Apollo was just about flags and footprints.

Robert Pearlman
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Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 05-30-2015 04:39 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Had Apollo not been a flags and footprints program, the discovery of the orange soil would have led to expanded exploration of the moon. Science driven programs generally benefit from discoveries.

The flags and footprints were central to Kennedy's goal: the footprints provided the proof of a man on the moon, and the flags proved that the United States were first (and only) there.

Blackarrow
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Posts: 3118
From: Belfast, United Kingdom
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 05-31-2015 11:54 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blackarrow     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I was simply pointing out that "landing a man on the Moon" does not technically require that man to get out of his spacecraft. Neil Armstrong was asked about this in Dublin in 2003. My recollection of his answer was that the goal would have been achieved without getting out, but that a failure to conduct an EVA and retrieve rocks would have made the scientists very unhappy. That answer was delivered with his inimitable dry sense of humour.

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