NASA wants your help designing its Artemis II mascot
NASA is seeking submissions for a new zero gravity indicator (ZGI) that will accompany the Artemis II astronauts on their upcoming trip around the moon. But if you think you need an advanced engineering degree to design the next ZGI, think again—any level of education and an enthusiasm for space exploration is probably enough to do the trick. The zero gravity indicator aboard a NASA spacecraft may sound like a complex piece of hardware, but it’s generally a lot simpler (and cuter) than you might think. Aboard the 2022 Artemis I launch, for example, the ZGI took the form of a Snoopy plushie doll dressed in a bespoke astronaut suit, while SpaceX’s Crew-1 mission in 2020 included a Baby Yoda doll from The Mandalorian. In reality, a ZGI is mostly a symbolic token celebrating another successful journey beyond Earth’s gravitational pull, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of thought...