Moon Mascot: NASA Artemis II ZGI Design Challenge
Which lunar mascot will join the Artemis II astronauts on their historic journey around the Moon in early 2026?
Between March 7 and June 16, 2025, NASA worked with crowdsourcing company Freelancer to seek design ideas from global creators for a weightlessness indicator that will fly aboard the agency’s Artemis II test flight.
Weightlessness indicators are small stuffed objects carried aboard the spacecraft to provide a visual indication of when the spacecraft and its crew reach space.
For the first eight minutes after liftoff, the crew and their nearby indicator will still be pushed toward their seats by gravity and the force of the climb into space. When the main engines of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s core stage shut down, the constraints of gravity are lifted, but the crew will still be safely strapped into their seats – the ability to float from their weightlessness indicator will provide proof that they have successfully entered space.
Artemis II marks the first time the public has participated in the creation of a crew mascot.
Over the course of ten days, four astronauts will travel approximately 685,000 miles from Earth, venture around the Moon and return home. The flight will, for the first time with astronauts, test NASA’s human deep space exploration capabilities, including the agency’s ground-based exploration systems, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft.
NASA has long used weightlessness indicators for human spaceflight missions. Many missions to the International Space Station include a stuffed object. A stuffed Snoopy rode inside Orion during NASA’s uncrewed Artemis I mission.
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, will venture around the Moon and back. The mission is the first crewed flight as part of NASA’s Artemis campaign and is another step toward missions to the lunar surface and helps the agency prepare for future human missions to Mars.
The Artemis II astronauts attended SXSW 2025 on March 7, 2025 and were part of a panel to discuss their upcoming mission around the Moon and answer questions from the audience. During the panel, Commander Reid Wiseman showed the audience his weightlessness indicator from his Expedition 40 mission to the International Space Station. His weightlessness indicator was a toy giraffe named Giraffiti. Wiseman’s mother gave Giraffiti to her eldest daughter when she was born. When Wiseman embarked on his first mission to space, his children gave him Giraffiti to take with him into space.
“This little guy spent every day with me in my crew quarters,” Wiseman said. “It was a connection between me coming home and my children.”
Then, Wiseman and the other crew members revealed that they were opening up the possibility for people of all ages around the world to design the weightlessness indicator for the Artemis II mission around the Moon.
Reid Wiseman
NASA astronaut and Artemis II mission commander
The Moon Mascot competition was organized by the independent and crowdsourcing company Freelancer on behalf of the agency through the NASA Tournament Lab. The competition lasted approximately three months and received thousands of entries from over 50 countries. During the competition, the agency hosted a Twitch stream on NASA’s Twitch channel to discuss weightlessness indicators and practice creating a design with a live artist. Adobe also released an Adobe Express template to help participants with their designs.
On August 22, NASA and Freelancer announced the 25 finalists for the competition. These designs – ideas ranging from Moon-related twists on earthly creatures to creative visions of exploration and discovery – were selected from more than 2,600 submissions from more than 50 countries, including students in grades K-12. The finalists represent 10 countries, including the United States, Canada, Colombia, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Peru, Singapore and Wales.
Once the crew selects a final design, NASA’s Thermal Blanket Laboratory will manufacture it for flight. The indicator will be attached inside the Orion spacecraft before launch.
The winner of the competition and the design that will accompany the astronauts on their historic mission will be revealed closer to the launch. Launch is currently planned for early next year, with opportunities to launch as early as February 2026.
