Last modified: 2026-04-18 by tomislav todorovic
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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)
[2]
Mars Desert Research Station, Crew 45 (MDRS-45) photo gallery
[right-click on the thumbnails, even when unloaded, to open the images]
[3]
HobbySpace.com website - Interview with Peter Kokh, commander of MDRS-45
Tomislav Todorovic, 16 May 2015
image by Tomislav
Todorovic, 12 Apr 2026
image by Tomislav
Todorovic, 31 Jul 2016
Below is a link to a page
about the Lunar Republic Society’s flag of the Moon. It’s a black background with a white circle, and a line of blue on the bottom. It’s simple and it works!
Paul Bassinson, 31 Jul 2016
The link is currently dead, luckily the flag can also be seen here
and despite the small image size, it is easy to reconstruct a full-size image.
Tomislav Todorovic, 31 Jul 2016
This eclipse of the moon appears to be over now. Here is the text describing the flag:
"A simple design which symbolizes our goals and aspirations...""Luna Society International" is not a scientific society but a private company that sells "Lunar property claims"; his main competitor is the Lunar Embassy Corporation. More details here.
That was the task given to a team of graphic designers who were asked to devise a flag to represent the newly-minted Lunar Republic. What the team came up with was something both simple and elegant — in a word, perfection.
The flag of the Lunar Republic is an unpretentious standard in basic colors, but instantly recognizable by the message it conveys. The bottom third of the flag is a field of blue that represents the Earth (the "Blue Planet") from which we came; the upper two-thirds encompass a field of plain black, representing the night sky and outer space; finally, centered in the upper field is a white disk that symbolizes the full and radiant Moon.
The flag also represents the citizens of the Lunar Republic themselves, immediately identifying those of us who have made the commitment to the future of lunar development our own objective.
The Russian republic of Yakutia uses a similar design in brighter colours.
James Dignan and Ivan Sache, 01 Aug 2016
The text speaks of "bottom third" and "upper two-thirds", but the image shows "bottom fourth" and "upper three-fourths",
as does the other image which served as the model for yesterday's contribution.
Tomislav Todorovic, 01 Aug 2016
The description of this flag, including its [incorrect] image, was online until August 2017. Only in September 2021, the flag image appeared at the site again, first (on 4th September) as part of an illustration displaying the flag as flying over a lunar landscape (dubious plausibility, given the absence of atmosphere - and consequently, the wind - on Moon), and then (on 20th September) also as a proper flag image, matching the description this time, i.e. blue stripe occupying one-third of the field. Since April 2025, only the latter image has remained online.
In September 2021, both images of the correct design have also appeared at the page presenting the set of documents issued as the proof of purchased "claim", which includes the declaration of citizenship of the Lunar Republic, actually called United Lunar Republic at the site, but the word "United" is not used within the said document, which displays the flag image in its header. Since February 2023, the "landscape" image was removed from that page and in March same year, the set was expanded with a car decal displaying the flag design, which was illustrated with the incorrect flag image again (i.e. blue stripe occupying one-fourth instead of one-third of the field). The correct and incorrect flag images have coexisted on the said page ever since, although the said declaration of citizenship has always been depicted as displaying the correct flag. The shade of blue also differs on two images, being lighter on the correct one.
A separate website for the Lunar Republic also existed. The flag (incorrect image) was [displayed] on its home page since 2001 until 2012. The site had also included the presentation of the flag, with the correct description and incorrect depiction, also from 2001 to 2012. When the flag image appeared at the home page in 2022 again, it displayed the correct design, but the site content looked like a mashup of the original content and parts copied from the US Department of State website, seemingly intended to give seriousness to presented claim that the USA had recognized the Lunar Republic and established diplomatic relations with it, although the overall design did not look serious enough to support it [properly]. By 2026, the website was shut down and its URL now simply leads to the Lunar Registry website.
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