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Meet the Artemis II Moon mission's mascot

A plushie is being held by two astronauts. Its is a round beige moon with a smiley face and a hat that looks like the Earth. Reuters

Say hello to Rise, a plushie that will accompany the astronauts in the Orion capsule on their Artemis II moon mission.

It was designed by an 8-year-old called Lucas, from Mountain View, California, as part of the Moon Mascot competition.

There were more than 2,600 designs sent in from over 50 countries.

But this happy little fella won't just be there for moral support, he has a very important job - keep reading to find out what it is!

More on Artemis II

A photo from the surface of the moon. You can see the Earth rising in the vast nothingness of spaceGetty Images

This is the image that inspired the design of Rise, the Moon mission's mascot

Rise is a zero gravity indicator, a small soft item that rides with the crew to show them when they are in space.

Its design was inspired by the iconic Earthrise moment from the Apollo 8 mission as you can see in the photo above.

During lift off, the crew and the plushie will be pushed into the seats for the first eight minutes, but once they are in space, the astronauts will remain strapped into their seats while the plushie will float in zero gravity.

Reid Wiseman, one of the astronauts on the Artemis II mission said:

"In a spacecraft filled with complex hardware to keep the crew alive in deep space, the indicator is a friendly and useful way to highlight the human element that is so critical to our exploration of the universe."

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  1. A drawing of an octopus in an astronaut helmet that looks like the earth. It is holding planets in its tentacles.
    NASA

    'Big Steps of Little Octopus' by Anzhelika from Finland

25 finalists were whittled down to the top five designs.

You can take a look through a gallery of some of the other top entries above.

It's the first time the public has been able to help create the crew's mascot.

The designs came from countries around the world including the United States, Canada, France, Japan and Wales.