Earth flag competition - one of the sixteen finalists
Calum Whyte - UK
24 May 2001
Sixteen youngsters from Europe and Canada have won a trip to the International Air show in Paris for their design of flags to mark the launch of the European Space Agency’s Earth-observing satellite, Envisat.
Envisat will monitor climate change, land use, the oceans and ice caps. To emphasize the satellite’s mission to understand the whole planet, ESA invited children aged 8 to 12 years old to design “a flag for the Earth”.
We’ll be featuring each of the sixteen flags in turn on this website (strictly in alphabetical order) each day from now until 16 June.
The national winners are:
| Kristina Marinkovic | Austria |
| Dumez Segolene | Belgium |
| Danthiya Balasingam | Canada |
| Maja Rose Valbjorn | Denmark |
| Antti Niiranen | Finland |
| Clarisse Ostorero | France |
| Anke Hartmanns | Germany |
| Anna Maloney | Ireland |
| Roberta Rulli | Italy |
| Corinne Smorenburg | The Netherlands |
| Thea Vangbaek | Norway |
| Joao Rodrigues de Campos | Portugal |
| Laura Lucas Olmo | Spain |
| Erik Andersson | Sweden |
| Cornelia Feller | Switzerland |
| Calum Whyte | UK |
You can also view all the finalist entries on the Envisat competition web page and read the children's explanations of their design concepts.
One of these sixteen flags will be selected at the Air show on 17 June and will be painted on the side of the Ariane-5 rocket that will launch Envisat from French Guiana this autumn.
More than 11 000 schoolchildren aged 8 to 12 years from the Agency’s 15 member states and Canada entered the competition, and the judges found the task of selecting from among high quality entries extremely difficult. Entries were accompanied by short descriptions of the symbolism of the flags, and many emphasized the importance of friendship among different countries and races.
All the designs show a strong use of colour to represent ideas, for example, red for the dangers encircling the Earth, or white for the infinity of space. A number of children selected yellows and oranges as a background to represent the Sun’s energy.
Besides emphasizing the importance of environmental monitoring for global security, ESA wanted to stimulate discussion about space projects. “We are pleased because teachers have written to tell us of the lively debates sparked by the competition,” says an agency official.
"We need to take all opportunities that will stimulate children's
interest in the benefits of space. We need to show that space is not
just nice astronauts in shiny suits. Children need to be familiar with
more difficult aspects of space applications from an early age," says
Claudio Mastracci, ESA's director of space applications.
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