logo
NASA Goes Live on Twitch: Design Artemis II Moon Mascot

NASA Goes Live on Twitch: Design Artemis II Moon Mascot

Yahoo12-05-2025
WASHINGTON, May 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA will host a live Twitch event to highlight the ongoing Moon Mascot Challenge, which invites the public to design a zero gravity indicator for the agency's Artemis II crewed test flight around the Moon. Viewers will have the opportunity to provide real-time input to an artist who will create an example of a zero gravity indicator during the livestream.
Zero gravity indicators are small, plush items carried aboard spacecraft to provide a visual indication of when the crew reaches space.
The event will begin at 3 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, May 13, on the agency's official Twitch channel:
https://www.twitch.tv/nasa
The contest invites global creators of all ages to submit design ideas for a zero gravity indicator that will fly aboard the agency's Artemis II test flight, the first crewed mission under NASA's Artemis campaign.
Up to 25 finalists, including entries from a K-12 student division, will be selected. The Artemis II crew will choose one design that NASA's Thermal Blanket Lab will fabricate to fly alongside the crew in the Orion spacecraft.
During this Twitch event, NASA experts will discuss the Moon Mascot Challenge while the artist incorporates live audience feedback into a sample design. Although the design example will not be eligible for the contest, it will demonstrate how challenge participants can develop their own zero gravity indicator designs. The example will be shared on the @NASAArtemis social media accounts following the Twitch event.
The Artemis II test flight will take NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back. The mission is another step toward missions on the lunar surface to help the agency prepare for future human missions to Mars.
To learn more about NASA's missions, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nasa-goes-live-on-twitch-design-artemis-ii-moon-mascot-302452729.html
SOURCE NASA
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

NASA IV&V in Fairmont faces drastic funding cut
NASA IV&V in Fairmont faces drastic funding cut

Dominion Post

time3 hours ago

  • Dominion Post

NASA IV&V in Fairmont faces drastic funding cut

dbeard@ MORGANTOWN – NASA's Katherine Johnson Independent Verification & Validation Facility in Fairmont could see a drastic budget cut under President Trump's Fiscal Year 2026 Discretionary Budget Request. But members of West Virginia's Congressional delegation are working to prevent it As part of an overall proposed NASA budget cut, Johnson IV&V would see its funding fall from its current $43.3 million (from FY 2024) to $13.8 million in FY 2026 – just one third of the current budget. NASA is working on answers to questions from The Dominion Post about the ramifications of the cut and will provide those next week. In its 2026 Budget Technical Supplement, the agency says, 'In FY 2026, NASA plans to significantly reduce and restructure both the NASA Engineering and Safety Center and Independent Verification and Validation program as part of the effort to consolidate the overall Agency Technical Authority program. In FY 2026, NASA will allocate $9.9 million for IV&V to ensure the program can provide software assurance support to the future Moon to Mars programs.' The Dominion Post reached out to Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Jim Justice, and Rep. Riley Moore for comments on the proposal. Capito spokeswoman Kelley Moore (no relation) said Capito 'is aware of the proposed cuts to NASA that would impact the mission and the facility at Katherine Johnson IV&V.' She has been in contact with leadership at the facility, Goddard Space Flight Center, which oversees the work at IV&V, and NASA Headquarters. 'It has also been conveyed to NASA and to the Senate Appropriations Committee that Sen. Capito will oppose any cuts to this facility that would impact workforce or its mission,' Moore said. Moore noted that since NASA does not have an administrator or a nominee at this time, there has not been a budget hearing where this topic could be raised. 'Regardless, Sen. Capito is working hard to protect this facility that she so proudly helped name around this time in 2019.' Justice did not respond to several requests for comment. Moore said, 'I am closely tracking the proposed cuts to NASA's Fairmont facility. I have been in constant communication with the appropriations subcommittee chairman who oversees its funding, and will use my position on the Appropriations Committee to fight for the important work being done there.' Here's a breakdown of the numbers that factor into IV&V's budget – with several layers of authority above IV&V. IV&V overall falls under NASA's Safety, Security and Mission Services. That budget was cut from $3.131 billion in FY 2024 to $3.092 billion in FY 2025 and will fall to $2.118 billion in FY 2026 the federal fiscal year begins Oct. 1). Under SS&MS, is Engineering Safety & Operations. Its budget will fall from $1.088 billion in FY 2024 to $620.3million in FY 2026 and $446.5 million in FY 2027. And under ES&O, the Agency Technical Authority funding will fall from $196.1 million in FY 2024 to $69.6 million in FY 2026. 'The Agency Technical Authority program protects the health and safety of NASA's workforce by evaluating programs, projects, and operations to ensure safe and successful completion. ATA capabilities provide expert technical excellence, mission assurance, and technical authority agency wide.' IV&V falls directly under the Agency Technical Authority, with funding from several accounts. Funding from the Safety, Security and Mission Services account will be cut from $39.2 million to $9.9 million – for software assurance support for Moon and Mars programs, as mentioned above. Funding from the Exploration account will go from $3.3 million to $2 million. Funding from the Space Operations account will go from $800,000 to $700,000. One account source will see an increase: Science account funding will go from $0 in FY 2024 to $1.2 million for FY 2026. A footnote hints at some flexibility: 'The IV&V program will work with Mission Directorate to adjust FY 2026 allocations as the FY 2026 operating plan is developed.' Some information provided to The Dominion Post noted that cuts to IV&V have been proposed in the past, but not to this extent.

NASA finds new interstellar comet passing through solar system
NASA finds new interstellar comet passing through solar system

CBS News

time5 hours ago

  • CBS News

NASA finds new interstellar comet passing through solar system

NASA has discovered a new interstellar comet that's currently located about 420 million miles away from Earth. The space agency spotted the quick-moving object with the Atlas telescope in Chile on Tuesday and confirmed it was a comet from another star system. The new interstellar comet's official name is 3I/ATLAS. It's officially the third known interstellar object to pass through our solar system, and it poses no threat to Earth. The other two interstellar objects were 2I/Borisov, reported in 2019, and Oumuamua in 2017. This diagram provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech shows the trajectory of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passes through the solar system. NASA "These things take millions of years to go from one stellar neighborhood to another, so this thing has likely been traveling through space for hundreds of millions of years, even billions of years," Paul Chodas, director of NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies, said Thursday. "We don't know, and so we can't predict which star it came from." The newest visitor is 416 million miles from the sun, out near Jupiter, and heading this way at a blistering 37 miles per second. NASA said the comet will make its closest approach to the sun in late October, scooting between the orbits of Mars and Earth — but closer to the red planet than Earth at a safe 150 million miles away. Astronomers around the world are monitoring the icy snowball that's been officially designated as 3I/Atlas to determine its size and shape. Chodas told The Associated Press there have been more than 100 observations since its discovery, with preliminary reports of a tail and a cloud of gas and dust around the comet's nucleus. NASA said 3I/ATLAS should remain visible to telescopes through September, but then it will pass too close to the sun to observe. It is expected to reappear on the other side of the sun by early December, allowing for renewed observations. Based on its brightness, the comet appears to be bigger than the first two interstellar interlopers, possibly several miles across, Chodas said. It's coming in faster, too, from a different direction, and while its home star is unknown, scientists suspect it was closer to the center of our Milky Way galaxy. "We've been expecting to see interstellar objects for decades, frankly, and finally we're seeing them," Chodas said. "A visitor from another solar system, even though it's natural — it's not artificial, don't get excited because some people do ... It's just very exciting."

A comet from an entirely different solar system is flying through ours, NASA says
A comet from an entirely different solar system is flying through ours, NASA says

USA Today

time6 hours ago

  • USA Today

A comet from an entirely different solar system is flying through ours, NASA says

An interstellar tourist is taking a quick trip through our solar system, becoming one of just three known objects to ever do so, according to NASA. A comet from a solar system outside our own was first noticed on July 1 by a NASA telescope located in Rio Hurtado, Chile, as part of the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS). When scanning the sky for space debris that could pose a threat to Earth, it detected a then-unknown object zipping through space. NASA then gathered data collected about the object from several telescopes around the world, tracing its earliest captured appearance back to June 14. Officially named 3I/ATLAS, the comet was confirmed as having originated outside of Earth's solar system on July 3, according to the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA. It is believed to be about 20 kilometers, or over 12 miles wide, according to the ESA and traveling at about 60 kilometers, or 37 miles per second relative to the sun. ESA's astronomers are actively tracking 3I/ATLAS, which is now the third confirmed interstellar comet to pass through our Solar System!More info at: Interstellar comet to pass by sun in October The visitor poses no threat, NASA said, as it will remain at least 150 million miles away from Earth. It is 420 million miles away as of July 3, and will reach its closest point to the sun around Oct. 30, when it passes by at a distance of about 130 million miles. It will be observable by telescope until September, advised NASA, when it will then approach the sun too closely to be seen, but will be viewable again around December. "While every planet, moon, asteroid, comet and lifeform that formed in our Solar System shares a common origin, a common heritage, interstellar visitors are true outsiders," the ESA said in a post to X, formerly Twitter. Other visitors from beyond our solar system Scientists know of only two other interstellar objects that have ever been observed from Earth. The first, 1I/2017 U1 'Oumuamua, was discovered by the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS1 telescope on Oct. 19, 2017. Described by NASA as "cigar-shaped" with a "reddish hue," it was originally believed to be a comet, then an asteroid, then possibly a comet again. The second, Comet 2I/Borisov, was spotted by amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov of Crimea on Aug. 30, 2019. It streaked through our solar system at 110,000 mph, according to NASA, and behaved more like an active comet.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store