Flag of Mars

A proposal by Calder Hansen

Why does Mars need a flag?

There are many plans to colonize Mars soon, possibly within the next decade. If there is a colony, it will need a flag. And even if there is not a colony, a flag will be important as a way to represent the exploration and/or colonization of Mars

What does this flag represent?

This flag represents multiple aspects of Mars itself and of humanity’s relationship with Mars.

Red represents:

The color of Martian soil
The bravery of humanity in going to Mars

White represents:

The ice caps of Mars, an important source of water for future human
Our peaceful intentions for the exploration of Mars

The chevron shape represents:

The mountains of Mars, especially Olympus Mons, the tallest mountain in the Solar System
An upward-pointing arrow symbolizing humanity’s journey into space

The aspect ratio (height : width) of the flag, 17 : 32, is almost exactly the ratio of an Earth year to a Mars year.

Why use this flag instead of another that already exists?

The flag shown here is the most well-known proposal for a flag of Mars, designed by Pascal Lee. He came up with the idea in casual conversation, and to his surprise, it took off. Like him and many others, I have been excited about the exploration of Mars, and this inspired me to design a flag. I present the new flag as an alternative.

The colors red, green, and blue on Lee’s flag represent the “future phases of terraforming Mars” — if we choose to alter Mars so it is habitable to humans, the planet will change from its current red color to green to blue over the course of this process.

Here are four reasons why I propose that the new flag be used instead:

It stands out from other flags. The flag for an entire planet should not be hard to distinguish from the flags of individual countries. Lee’s flag is a triband flag, and as such it does not stand out from the many national triband flags in existence. The new flag, however, is memorable and distinct from other flags.
The color values provide contrast. A common design principle is to use both light and dark colors, rather than only light or only dark colors. This principle is supported by the North American Vexillological Association (vexillology: the study of flags), which says that “contrast is important — use light colors on dark, and vice-versa.” Lee’s flag uses only dark colors of a similar value, not providing much contrast. The new flag uses a dark color (red) on a light color (white), resulting in a contrast that enlivens the design and draws one’s eye.
It represents more. The new flag represents multiple aspects of Mars itself and of humanity’s relationship with Mars. Lee’s flag represents just one thing — the process of terraforming Mars. I think that a flag should ideally represent multiple aspects of whatever it’s for. I also think that the flag of Mars should, at least in part, represent Mars in its natural state, rather than what humans want to change it into. (Pascal Lee might agree, I think, as he says he is “not actually a big fan of terraforming.”)
Its meaning does not depend on the order of its parts. The meaning of Lee’s flag comes from looking at the stripes from left to right, going from red to green to blue. If you speak a language that is written from right to left (such as Arabic or Hebrew), you will read it in the opposite order and the meaning will be reversed. Exploring Mars is an international endeavor, so everyone should be able to understand the flag’s meaning. Additionally, one often sees a flag from behind, which would cause the same reversal of meaning in Lee’s flag but would not cause a problem with the new flag.

Many other proposals for flags of Mars focus on just one aspect of Mars — either the fact that it is the fourth planet from the Sun or that it has two moons. Again, I think that the flag should represent more than that. Other flags are based on the astronomical symbol for Mars, ♂. This is unsatisfactory for two reasons: first, this symbol doesn’t relate to any feature of Mars or of humanity’s relationship with Mars (instead, it’s based on the shield and spear of the Roman god Mars), and second, this symbol is also used as the male symbol, which would likely lead to misinterpretations.

One other benefit of the new flag, which many other, more complicated, proposals do not have, is that the basic elements of the flag — the red chevron on the white background — can be adjusted to work in many different contexts outside of this rectangle.

Would a flag actually work on Mars?

Mars has an atmosphere just 1% of the density of the Earth’s atmosphere, which means that the wind is not strong enough to fly a flag (at least a flag like those on Earth). We could address this by using a lighter material or by simply hanging the flag from a horizontal pole (like was used for flags on the Moon).

Specifications

The aspect ratio (height : width) is 17 : 32. This is based off of the ratio of an Earth year to a Mars year, which can be expressed as 17 : 31.97 to compare with the aspect ratio. (These values will be the same whether tropical years or sidereal years are chosen, as the difference between the ratios produced is negligible for our purposes.)

The red color used is Pantone 1665 XGC, with hex code #DF4911. The white color is pure white, #FFFFFF.

The slope of the chevron is ± 7 / 8. The exact width of the red stroke is 45  / √113, approximately 4.23.

The angle measurements and the 5 5 / 8 are not necessary for constructing the flag; they are only included in the diagram above in case the information is useful.

Image files

Flag (1600 × 850): PNG | JPG | SVG
Construction diagram (2250 × 1500): PNG | JPG | SVG
(Links open in new tab)

If you know someone who would be interested in this flag, please send them the link!

​The New (and Unofficial)​Flag of Mars