The Artemis 2 -Crew of NASA wants their help to design the plush toy that flies around the moon with them.

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The “Moon Mascot: NASA Artemis II ZGI Design Challenge” is looking for original ideas for the Zero-G indicator to accompany the first crew to fly around the moon in more than 50 years. . | Credit: NASA/freelancer

The first astronauts, who are preparing to fly to the moon in more than 50 years, want their fifth crew member – their “moon mascot” – their fifth crew member.

The Artemis 2-Crew of the NASA is looking for an original idea for your zero g indicator (ZGI), a stuffed toy or a stuffed doll that is suspended on a tether in your spaceship from Orion to signal when you enter the microgravitic environment of the room. The Artemis II mission, which should not start earlier than at the end of 2026, will swing the crew around the moon and then return it to earth.

The mission commander Reid Wiseman and the mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen unveiled the competition during a lecture in the South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival in Austin, Texas. (Victor Glover, the mission’s pilot, had to be in the Johnson Space Center in Houston to select the next class of NASA Astronaut candidates.)

“I can’t emphasize enough how much this thing becomes a mascot of her crew, because it is the only thing that is allowed in the cabin that the Orion engineers have not certified or designed hardware, and it is the coolest thing ever,” said Koch on Friday (March 7). “It starts to float when they are in space, and since we are all still strapped on our seats, there is really nothing else to show that they are actually in the room for the in-cabin camera views, apart from their zero Grenite indicator that floats around.”

“So these are a really cool part of our missions, and we really didn’t want any of these friction points to find out what we would have,” said Koch. “So we give them all this competition. We would love it if someone in this audience, but actually everyone from all over the world, can compete in this competition and hopefully design what is going around the moon in our capsule.”

A NASA spokesman and three astronauts in Blue Flights lits are on a stage at a festival. One of the astronauts holds up a stuffed toy giraffe. — Artemis 2 Commander Reid Wiseman (right) holds “Giraffiti” his zero G indicator from his previous mission to the international space station. Wiseman sits with the crew members Jeremy Hansen and Christina Koch as well as the Courtney Beasley from NASA at the Southwest Festival 2025 by Southwest in Austin, Texas. | Credit: SXSW

NASA has teamed up with the crowdsourcing company Freelancer to lead the competition that is open to elementary schoolchildren and adults by May 27th and works as individuals, classrooms or teams, in the USA or as non-designated land (countries that do not participate in the general agreement on tariffs and trade [GATT] Or a free trade agreement [FTA] with the USA). Depending on your age, up to 25 selected entries each win $ 1,225 or an Artemis Package.

The competition is looking for designs, which are put together by the thermal ceiling of NASA for the flight. As such, submissions must be original; Relevant for a global audience that represents humanity; And meaningful for the Artemis 2 Mission and Astronauts. The finished ZGI must be able to fit into a 6-inch square (15.25 cm) and not to weigh more than 0.34 kg (0.75 pounds).

For safety reasons, the designs can only be created with Nomex thread. Art fur, polyester or cotton fabric; Beta fabric, Kevlar or vinyl; Kapton/VDA -Polyimid film; and poly file to fill. No other materials are allowed.

The tradition of flying indicators with Zero Gravity began in the former Soviet Union with the first human spatial flight in the world. In 1961, Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin wore a small doll with him on board his Vostok capsule to see how she swims. Since then, many of Gagarin’s cosmonauts have flown to the talisman and zgi toys and fabric dolls, often on the proposal of their children.

A collection of filled toys and plushers float together in a space station — A collection of Russian Soyuz-Raum vehicles Zero-G indicators that are shown together on board the international space station. | Credit: Roscosmos

“Giraffiti flew with me on my only flight to the international space station,” said Wiseman and held up a plush toy giraffe. “He still has a bit of seams on the neck so that it can be hung in our Sojuz [spacecraft]. “

“This was the first gift that my mother of my first -born daughter ever gave, so this was very sentimental,” he told the audience at SXSW.

The ZGI Custom moved to the United States with the first flights of the Commercial Crew program of NASA, with both SpaceX and Boeing launched their missions with toys on board. Some of this ZGI contain a plush earth ball, a sequin dinosaurs and a sparkling narwal.