Moon Mascot Ready to Rise with Artemis II

Narration: Ryan Fitzgibbons

Transcript:

Packing for a journey to the moon is kind of like any other road trip. You need clothes, food, a map, your favorite toy. Really! Except this toy has a job to do up there because this is a zero-gravity indicator. While not a scientific instrument, this safe and soft object tells the strapped-in astronauts that they’ve reached weightlessness. For Artemis II, the crew wanted a one-of-a-kind CGI, so we asked you to come up with it. Thanks, everyone, for sending in your entries from around the world. Over 2600 of you submitted. And we loved seeing all of your contributions. It was a really difficult decision because each design had a unique quality that stood out to our crew. In the end, we were able to narrow it down to a top five from Finland, Canada, Peru, and two from the United States: Kansas and California. In the end, we went with one called Rise. It was a design inspired by the Earthrise photo taken on Apollo 8, which is very special to our crew. With the winner chosen, next came the task of bringing it to life here in the Thermal Blanket Lab at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. This lab specializes in custom materials to protect sensitive spacecraft equipment, and is perfect for creating a ZGI that meets the rigorous safety standards of NASA. Because you have to be concerned with whether the thread is going to outgas or if it will hold up if it’s flame retardant. This is the Rise ZGI doll. All I have left to do is to close the opening here and hand so the hat on, make sure it’s stuffing is stuffed in there, and we have our pocket here for the SD card. And on that tiny SD card will be millions of names submitted to virtually join the crew aboard Orion.