posted 03-09-2015 11:19 AM               

NASA's 50th Anniversary of EVA Insignia

Throughout 2015, NASA is recognizing 50 years of spacewalking, or Extravehicular Activity (EVA), celebrating how spacewalks enhance our exploration capabilities and enables humans to go deeper into the solar system in part by suiting up!

Two important dates to remember: March 18, the anniversary of the first spacewalk by Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who left his Voskhod 2 vehicle for a 12-minute tethered walk, and June 3, when NASA's Ed White exited his Gemini 4 capsule using a hand-held jet gun to push himself during a 23-minute tethered spacewalk.

As part of the celebration, NASA held an internal contest to design a patch symbolizing this milestone. Artist Blake Dumesnil's submission was selected to be the official emblem.

posted 03-09-2015 01:30 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by lucspace:
Oh my, Blake just doesn't stop coming up with excellent designs!

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posted 03-09-2015 01:37 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by lucspace:
I bow deeply to his talents and wish that the bolt of inspiration that seems to hit him incessantly, would land upon me just once.

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posted 03-10-2015 09:10 AM               

I'm curious as to the symbology of the mountain reflected in the gold visor?

posted 03-10-2015 09:23 AM               

Astronauts and NASA managers have likened the challenge of conducting spacewalks to climbing a mountain. For example, Dan Tani in 2007 remarked, "I remember pre-ISS talking about the hundreds — or more than one hundred — EVAs that are going to be required for assembly and thinking that was a huge mountain to climb."

Also, NASA's official EVA history monograph likens spacewalking to a mountain.

Spacewalkers enjoy a view of Earth once reserved for Apollo, Zeus, and other denizens of Mt. Olympus. During humanity's first extravehicular activity (EVA), Alexei Leonov floated above Gibraltar, the rock ancient seafarers saw as the gateway to the great unknown Atlantic. The symbolism was clear, Leonov stepped past a new Gibraltar when he stepped into space.

...today the symbolism has new meaning: humanity is starting to think of stepping out of Earth orbit, space travel's new Gibraltar, and perhaps obtaining a new olympian view, a close-up look at Olympus Mons on Mars.

posted 03-10-2015 11:03 AM            

Robert did a beautiful job providing some insight into the use of the mountain in this design. While the most important part of why I included it was because it provided some great symbolism to the design, part of the choice was also made from a design standpoint. In order to really give the visor a reflective appearance, I felt that something needed to be in the "background" but that it also needed to be simple so it would show up effectively when scaled down (or in patch form). The mountains just really worked nicely and gave it some depth.