Mission patches are a decades-old custom in spaceflight. They’ll vary from the figurative to the summary, prompting helpful insights or feeding confusion. Some are simply plain bizarre.
Ars printed a narrative a few months in the past on spaceflight patches from NASA, SpaceX, Russia, and the NRO, the US authorities’s spy satellite tv for pc company, which is answerable for a few of the most head-scratching mission logos.
Till just lately, China’s entries within the realm of spaceflight patches typically lacked the originality present in patches from the West. For instance, a sequence of patches for China’s human spaceflight missions used a formulaic design with a round form and a mixture of crimson and blue. The patch for China’s most up-to-date Shenzhou crew to the nation’s Tiangong house station final month lastly broke the mildew with a triangular form after China’s human spaceflight company put the patch up for a public vote.
However there’s an interesting set of latest patches Chinese language officers launched for a sequence of launches with high secret satellites over the past two months. These 4 patches depict Buddhist gods with a way of artistry and sharp colours that stand aside from China’s earlier spaceflight emblems, and maybe—or maybe not—they’ll inform us one thing in regards to the nature of the missions they symbolize.
Guardians of the Dharma
The 4 patches present the 4 Heavenly Kings, protector deities in Buddhism who guard towards evil forces within the 4 cardinal instructions, in response to the Kyoto Nationwide Museum. The gods additionally protect the Dharma, the teachings of the Buddha, from exterior threats.
These gods have totally different names, however in China, they’re often called Duōwén, Zēngzhǎng, Chíguó, and Guăngmù. Duōwén is the commander and the guardian of the north, the “one who listens to many teachings,” who is usually depicted with an umbrella. Zēngzhǎng, guardian of the south, is a god of development proven carrying a sword. The protector of the east is Chíguó, defender of the nation, who holds a stringed musical instrument. And guarding the west is Guăngmù, an all-seeing god often depicted with a serpent.
