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image by Tomislav
Todorovic, 16 May 2015
The Moon Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to exploration of the
Moon, introduced a flag in 2006 which is clearly derived from the
Mars Society proposal for the flag of Mars by
replacing its red, green and blue colors with gray, blue and green,
respectively. These colors symbolize the moon dust (gray), water (blue) and
vegetation and biosphere (green). The flag was used by the members of Moon
Society who were members of the Crew 45 of the Mars Desert Research Station, the
research project by the Mars Society. The shades of flag colors vary a lot on
its photos due to extremely varying lighting conditions, but comparing with the
photos of the tricolor of Mars, which was used at the same time, reveals that
the green color has the same, or almost the same, shade on both flags and the
blue is lighter on the flag of Moon.
Sources:
[1] Moon Society website
- proposals for the flag of Moon (including the 2006 flag):
http://www.moonsociety.org/flag/
[2] Mars Desert Research Station, Crew 45 (MDRS-45) photo gallery:
http://freemars.org/mnfan/MarsSociety/2006/MDRS/Crew45/
[3]
HobbySpace.com website - Interview with Peter Kokh, commander of MDRS-45:
http://www.hobbyspace.com/AAdmin/archive/Interviews/Advocacy/PeterKokh.html
Tomislav Todorovic, 16 May 2015
image by
António Martins-Tuválkin, 20 Apr 2025
This is a proposal for a Moon residents’ flag, by Albert Notarbartolo,
no. 14 in the "New Glory: New Designs for Flags" exhibition, the 1976
artistic event in the United States that gathered 25 flag designs from 24 artists,
presented on p. 13 of the catalog [qbo76]
and shown on the 5th unnumbered color inset page. It is a ~7:9 black flag with
four white moonphase shapes on it: a disc and 3 progressively narrower crescents,
all tangent on one a single point, creating a whorl.
The designer of this proposal, Albert Notarbartolo (b. 1934), is an
established scholar, painter, and conceptual artist. In previous years he
made "Some Proposals for Art Objects in Extraterrestrial Space".
About this design, which "depicts the changing phases of the moon in
white against black", the creator states that it’s meant also for terrestrial
use, "to commemorate and celebrate the future establishment of the
first colony on the moon", as well as "an insignia to be placed on
space vehicles and as a cloth insignia to be worn by astronauts and moon
colony inhabitants". Even though the New Glory project was part of the
U.S. Bicentennial, with its very name refering
to the U.S. national flag, the artist notes that that
"this flag is not intended for use by any national group. Rather, it is an
international symbol for display by a people unaffiliated with any national group
on earth."
Albert Notarbartolo adds another quotable statement about flags by
a non-vexillologist artist, on vexillography as art: "To me, a well-designed
flag is as valid and as articulate as a good painting."
This flag can be seen on one of the three photos by Kate Keller from the
MoMA exhibition, which took place in 1976.09.11-10.24
(archived photo).
António Martins-Tuválkin, 20/23 Apr 2025 and Tomislav Todorovic, 27 Jul 2025