An 8-year-old boy from California will have a unique companion on NASA’s upcoming Artemis II mission: a plush toy he designed and built himself. The young innovator’s creation, named RISE, was selected as the mission’s Zero Gravity Indicator (ZGI).

The Winning Design: RISE

“I was really proud and hyperactive,” the Mountain View-raised boy said in a video, describing the plushie. “I like space, I like rockets, I like NASA, I like the solar system. I like studying about space.” RISE is a round, white plush toy featuring a hat adorned with the Earth and a brim patterned with galaxies and rockets.

Inspired by 'Earthrise'

The design is inspired by the iconic “Earthrise” photograph taken during the Apollo 8 mission. According to organizers, this image embodies the spirit of Artemis II. The plushie’s features hold special meaning, as explained by the young designer, Lucas Ye.

“My CGI is named RISE and is representing Earthrise. The cap is representing Earth in Earthrise. The white is representing the two past and future moon missions, and the constellation Orion represents Artemis II,” Ye explained. He also noted the tiny footprint on the moon represents the Apollo 11 mission and was made by Neil Armstrong.

A Global Design Challenge

The Moon Mascot: NASA Artemis II ZGI Design Challenge was hosted on Freelancer, a crowdsourcing platform with over 87 million users. Freelancer is one of 25 companies awarded NASA’s Open Innovation Services 3 contract.

“On behalf of everyone at Freelancer, congratulations to the winner — what an incredible achievement. Your design is literally going to space, which is not a sentence most people get to say,” said Trisha Epp, Director of Innovation at Freelancer.

International Participation

The contest attracted over 2,600 entries from more than 50 countries. Other finalists included Anzhelika Iudakova’s “Big Steps of Little Octopus” (Finland), Daniela Colina’s “Corey the Explorer” (Peru), Johanna Beck’s “Creation Mythos” (Kansas), and Oakville Trafalgar High School’s “Lepus the Moon Rabbit” (Canada).

A Tradition of Zero Gravity Indicators

NASA launched the challenge to create a ZGI – a small plush that floats to indicate when the crew reaches weightlessness. This tradition dates back to Yuri Gagarin’s Vostok 1 mission in 1961. Previous missions have featured Snoopy on Artemis I and Baby Yoda on SpaceX Crew-1.

A micro SD card containing the names of everyone who registered for the challenge will be stored inside RISE, effectively turning the plush into a time capsule. The Artemis II crew includes commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen.

“The judging panel had a really tough time with this one,” Epp said. “Every entry brought something personal to it — you could tell how much this meant to people. It was a privilege to see that kind of passion and creativity come through.”