Âé¶¹´«Ã½

Fly the flag

15 January 2000

The first people to set foot on Mars will be able to adorn its surface with a Martian flag. The tricolour symbol has been adopted by the Mars Society, a group of Martian exploration enthusiasts, and made its maiden voyage into space on board NASA’s space shuttle Discovery just before Christmas.

Âé¶¹´«Ã½. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Representing the primary colours of the spectrum, the flag’s pattern of red, green and blue vertical stripes was suggested by Pascal Lee, who is heading the Mars Society’s effort to build a prototype Martian research station on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic (Âé¶¹´«Ã½, 16 January 1999, p…

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