Mission patches are a decades-old custom in spaceflight. They can vary from the figurative to the summary, prompting beneficial 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 liable for some of the most head-scratching mission logos.
Until just lately, China’s entries in the realm of spaceflight patches typically lacked the originality present in patches from the West. For instance, a collection of patches for China’s human spaceflight missions used a formulaic design with a round form and a combination of pink 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 mould with a triangular form after China’s human spaceflight company put the patch up for a public vote.
But there’s an interesting set of new patches Chinese officers launched for a collection of launches with high secret satellites over the final 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 will inform us one thing about the nature of the missions they symbolize.
Guardians of the Dharma
The 4 patches present the Four Heavenly Kings, protector deities in Buddhism who guard in opposition to evil forces in the 4 cardinal instructions, in accordance with the Kyoto National Museum. The gods additionally protect the Dharma, the teachings of the Buddha, from exterior threats.
These gods have completely different names, however in China, they’re often known as Duōwén, Zēngzhǎng, Chíguó, and Guăngmù. Duōwén is the commander and the guardian of the north, the “one who listens to many teachings,” who is commonly 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.