Designed for a Dream: The Meaning of my Mission Patch

Elsa's "Mission to Mars and Beyond" Patch designed by NASA's Mission patch artist, Tim Gagnon.

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I am excited today to have my amazing designer Tim Gagnon write a guest blog about the design of my #NASAElsaShiju Patch.

Creating a mission patch for a space program, much less an aspiring astronaut, doesn’t come up in my purview of projects. Still, I keep an open mind for the “There’s a First Time for Everything Category” of creative projects. This specific patch design isn’t for NASA, SpaceX or some other private planetary enterprise, it’s for a rising young star, Elsa Shiju, who from a very young age knew in her heart she wanted to be an astronaut and go to mars.

Space mission patches have a great deal of meaning and symbolism underlining the design. With the prominent hashtag “NASAElsaShiju,” Elsa’s patch has a unique meaning — her ultimate mission lies in the future and she is posed to represent the future generation of space exploration. This future generation is what she calls, The Mars Generation. This became the focus for her patch design.

I first started by illustrating a spacecraft, (a significant element found on many space mission patches), that’s modeled after Space Launch System (SLS). SLS is intended to become the primary launch vehicle of NASA's deep space exploration plans throughout the 2021s and into the future, including the planned crewed lunar flights of the Artemis program and even human missions to Mars.

Stars used in mission patch designs also hold specific meanings. For a goal as challenging as Elsa’s, there is an on-going need for support — academically, through encouragement and for opening strategic doors. In her mission patch, the stars shown represent family, friends, teachers, supporters and sponsors who are helping to make Elsa’s dream a reality.

The galaxy in her patch symbolizes the dream realized. If children from all around the world were given the encouragement, support and resources to aspire and focus on their dreams as Elsa has, who knows the amazing developments that could transpire. To be sure, all our futures would benefit and be as bright.

We are the Mars Generation!