Andrew Paul is Popular Science's staff writer focused primarily on tech, AI, physics, and culture news. He was previously a regular contributor to The A.V. Club and Input, and has been featured by Rolling Stone, Fangoria, GQ, Slate, NBC, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, and elsewhere. He lives outside Indianapolis.
ArticleBody:Artemis II astronauts have entered final preparations for their historic trip around the moon, but they won’t be flying alone. While speaking recently at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, mission commander Reid Wiseman revealed the mission’s adorable zero gravity indicator.
Designed by a 2nd grader from California, “Rise” is a tiny plush doll that will let the four-person crew know when they’ve reached zero gravity. Aside from being extremely cute, Rise is also a symbolic celebration of the first crewed NASA mission to leave Earth’s orbit and circle the moon since the Apollo program. “Rise,” designed by Lucas Ye of Mountain View, California, as the zero gravity indicator that will fly with the crew around the Moon. “Rise” was inspired by the iconic Earthrise moment from the Apollo 8 mission. A zero gravity indicator is a small plush item that typically rides with a crew to visually indicate when they are in space.Credit: NASA A zero gravity indicator is an untethered object—often a stuffed animal or something similar—that highlights astronauts’ journey into space. However, their inclusion during flights wasn’t an original NASA idea. In 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first to pack a small doll alongside him during the Vostok I journey to showcase when he reached microgravity. Zero gravity indicators have since become an international staple of spacefaring, with past examples including plushies of R2-D2, Albert Einstein, and multiple dinosaurs. More recently, Snoopy was the sole inhabitant aboard the uncrewed Artemis I mission in 2022. The Rise doll was one of over 2,600 submissions from more than 50 countries during NASA’s Moon Mascot contest. In August 2025, the Artemis II crew narrowed down the selections to 25 finalists before settling on the top five contenders: “Big Steps of Little Octopus,” Anzhelika Iudakova, Finland “Corey the Explorer,” Daniela Colina, Peru “Creation Mythos,” Johanna Beck, McPherson, Kansas “Lepus the Moon Rabbit,” Oakville Trafalgar School, Canada “Rise,” Lucas Ye, Mountain View, California Ye’s creation is inspired by the historic Earthrise scene captured during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968. While Rise will only be one official zero gravity indicator for Artemis II, there’s a solid chance that its very trendy, planet-themed baseball cap may start showing up in stores after the mission’s completion. Artemis II is currently scheduled to launch no earlier than Wednesday, April 1.
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