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| Skylab Expedition 2 The Skylab Expedition 2 patch has as its central image an adaptation of a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, inspired by the writings of the first century BCE Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollio in his De Architectura libri decem (Ten Books on Architecture), the oldest and most influential work on the subject. The third book suggests that buildings should reflect the proportions of the human figure: this figure would fit into the perfect geometric figures of the circle and the square. Proportional Study of Man in the Manner of Vitruvius was drawn around 1487. "Initially we asked the art departments at Rockwell (LA), McDonnell Douglas at Huntington Beach (builders of the Skylab), Kennedy Space Center and others to search the windmills of their minds for our mission patch considering the major objectives of Skylab -- Earth, Sun and Medical. The group at Huntington Beach was selected, although we received many good ideas from all of them. "We had decided that our patch should be red, white and blue for obvious reasons. The Earth half of the patch is pretty straightforward. The sun half is a little special in that the solar flare depicted in yellow orange is the shape of one Owen Garriott had done extensive analysis on years before. Leonardo Da Vinci's man represents the medical aspects of the flight. Certain modifications were made in Da Vinci's art to make it more suitable for family viewing. "An interesting sidelight involves the wives' patch, a 'first' that was done without our knowledge. The first time we saw the 'wives' patch was when we arrived in orbit and began to open the storage lockers in the Command Module to get our gear out. Neatly pasted to the interior of three of these locker doors were decals of the "wives" patch. This was a great idea and consistent with one of our mottos, 'Never lose your sense of humor.'" -- Jack Lousma, from All We Did Was Fly to the Moon In my opinion, this is one of the best-looking patches. It's interesting to note that Alan Bean, commander of the Skylab Expedition 2 crew, later retired from NASA to become a full-time artist, and yet I have not read any account of his bringing his artistic abilities to bear on either this patch or the patch for Apollo 12, of which he was also a crew member. The "Vitruvian Man" was used again (with the circle and
square omitted) as a design element on the STS-40 mission patch
in 1991, though much less prominently than on the Skylab Expedition
2 patch.
There is a footnote to this story, which is related only obliquely
to the Skylab Expedition 2 patch, in that it springs from the same
motif.
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Hamilton Sundstrand, the manufacturer of the Shuttle EVA (extravehicular
activity, known colloquially as a "space walk") suits,
designed this patch to be affixed to all of its space suits -- since
company logos are verboten on NASA equipment. This patch is also
based on the da Vinci "Vitruvian Man" theme, but is updated
for the space age: the central human figure is an astronaut suited
for EVA. While this is a bit of a liberty with a classic image,
it does address two modern concerns: the spacesuited figure is androgynous
to reflect that female astronauts perform EVAs as well as male astronauts;
and it presumably cushions delicate sensibilities from abuse.
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This page copyright © 2000-2006 Eugene Dorr. |