Just for Fun: Design a Mars Mission Patch
The chest section of Neil Armstrong's Apollo 11 spacesuit, which is held at the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center, a division of the smithsonian national air & Space museum (image credit: wikimedia commons/phil plait)
Mission patches are emblems worn by the astronauts and people affiliated with a particular space mission. Each mission patch has a unique design, which includes a picture relating to the mission and usually the crew members’ names. Crew members wear the patch on their space suits during launch; the design is silkscreened onto fireproof cloth for their safety. For ground work, non-flight crew, and souvenirs, mission patches are usually embroidered.
The first space patch was flown by Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova in 1963. NASA adopted mission patches in 1965 (sadly, years too late for Alan Shepard’s historic 1961 solo flight—but he did get one for his trip to the moon with Apollo 14 in 1971). In 1965, astronaut Gordon Cooper proposed and designed his own patch for the Gemini 5 mission that he completed with Pete Conrad—and the idea caught on. Since Gemini 5, patches have been created for all NASA manned missions, as well as many crew-less expeditions. The patches are designed by professional graphic designers, with crew input and guidance.
These are some of the mission patches worn by New Hampshire astronauts.
Now it’s your turn.
Congratulations: you’ve been accepted to participate in the first-ever crewed mission to Mars! What design will you use to represent this historic voyage? Don’t forget to add your name as a crew member!
Download & print our patch template, or start from scratch on blank paper. Let your creativity run wild…and don’t forget to share your work & tag us on Facebook, Instagram (@msdiscoverycenter), and Twitter (@msdiscoverycntr).
Special thanks to MSDC volunteer Jerrid Kenney for designing this template!
