Space and Physics
PUBLISHED
Uh oh, NASA's microgravity indicator for today's historic launch around the Moon appears to have been designed by an 8-year-old child.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.Today, at 6:24 pm EDT, NASA's Artemis II mission will begin taking NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a journey over 400,000 kilometers (250,000 miles) from Earth as they travel around the Moon.
This is the first time in over 50 years that humans have been beyond our natural satellite, and NASA is busy making sure everything is in order and safe ahead of their 10-day trip.
One vital part of every mission is a "zero gravity indicator", an object that shows the astronauts they have entered a microgravity environment.
While that's a useful tool, we should be up front (April Fools?) and say that there is no reason for concern that an 8-year-old designed it, as zero gravity indicators are generally plushies.
The job of the zero gravity indicator is simply to begin floating around the place when the spacecraft enters microgravity, letting the astronauts know visually that they are now in freefall.
The tradition began with humanity's first flight to space, as Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin took a small doll for the job. Since then, we have had everything from Baby Yoda to a miniature Earth with arms and legs.
The latest plushy to go on a space adventure was chosen by NASA through a competition run via the crowdsourcing company Freelancer.
“What better way to fly a mission around the Moon than to invite the public inside NASA’s Orion spacecraft with us and ask for help in designing our zero gravity indicator?” Wiseman, Artemis II’s commander, said when he announced the competition in March 2025.
“The indicator will float alongside Victor, Christina, Jeremy, and me as we go around the far side of the Moon and remind us of all of you back on Earth.”
The chosen indicator, beating over 2,600 entries from adults and children, is the work of Lucas Ye from Mountain View, California. Ye's entry is called “Rise”, and it was inspired by the iconic "Earthrise" image taken by astronaut William Anders on Apollo 8.
Lucas is a space enthusiast and is excited about the upcoming mission. The competition rules stated that entrants only had to design the plushie, but he actually made the toy too.
"The theme is actually the Earthrise photo taken on Apollo 8, which is inspirational to all of us. It is a mission that sort of mirrors our own," Koch, who is the mission specialist on Artemis II, said in a statement.
"And we've incorporated that into our mission patch and into our ethos and values as a crew. Welcome aboard, Rise."
The toy will accompany the four astronauts around the Moon, during which it will mostly be relaxing after its main job at the beginning of the mission.
