Introducing our Official Mascot
When we set out to create Temporal’s mascot, we had one goal: make it loveable, memorable, and unmistakably Temporal. A mascot isn’t just a fun addition; it’s a way to make a brand feel approachable, relatable, and even inspiring.
But then we thought—what if we did something truly out of this world? So we strapped a Raspberry Pi running a Temporal workflow to a weather balloon and launched it into space. Because… why not?
What on Earth is a Tardigrade?
Let’s be clear, tardigrades are the only living species we’ve encountered that can survive in space. The tardigrade was an obvious choice for us to choose as our mascot. These teeny tiny, resilient creatures—known as “water bears” or “moss piglets”—are nature’s ultimate survivors. Their unparalleled durability mirrors Temporal’s delivery of Durable Execution. And let’s face it, tardigrades are quirky, fascinating, and just plain cool—just like the developers we work with every day.
Tardigrades are microscopic aquatic animals, with 8 legs and 4 to 8 claws. Not only are tardigrades super cute, they’re also nearly indestructible.
“You can boil them, bake them, deep-freeze them, crush them, dehydrate them, or even blast them into space.” - National Geographic (talking about Tardigrades, not Developers)
Fun Facts About Tardigrades:
- Small but mighty: Tardigrades are typically 0.3 to 0.5 millimeters long
- Temperature champions: They can survive at -458°F / -272°C or 302°F / 150°C
- Radiation resistance: Tardigrades withstand radiation thousands of times higher than what’s lethal to humans, thanks to their unique Dsup proteins that protect their DNA
- Survival mode: In harsh conditions, they enter cryptobiosis—a dormant state where they lose nearly all their body water and shut down metabolism. In this state, tardigrades can survive for decades without food or water
- Diverse and adorable: With over 1,300 species, tardigrades inhabit moss, lichen, and soil, feeding on plant cells, algae, and small invertebrates
Creating a Mascot
When we pitched the idea of a tardigrade mascot to our co-founders, Samar Abbas and Maxim Fateev, it was an immediate hit, they never questioned our judgement, not even once. With their immediate and unconditional blessing, Lo McGuigan, our Staff Brand Designer, began sketching out concepts and exploring how to make the tardigrade both scientifically accurate and irresistibly cute.
Behind-the-scenes sketches of Temporal’s mascot.
Ziggy’s defining characteristics are: Expressive smile & tooth, eye highlights and cute blush, rounded claws on 8 legs.
What’s in a Name?
Naming our mascot was a truly collaborative effort. After much deliberation, we ultimately landed on Ziggy. The name is a nod to David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust,” tying in themes of space exploration, creativity, and individuality. But there’s more to it than that—Ziggy also means "victorious protector." This meaning resonates deeply with our mission: empowering developers to conquer big challenges and safeguard their Workflows with Durable Execution.
Bringing Ziggy to Life
Once we had the name, we focused on refining Ziggy’s design for our first plushie. We worked hard to get the balance just right, ensuring Ziggy would be huggable, iconic, and memorable. To add to the excitement, we created limited-edition trading cards featuring Ziggy, giving our community a fun new way to engage with Temporal.
A limited edition gold-foil Ziggy trading card given to attendees at Replay 2024 to commemorate the launch of our mascot.
The Plan: Launch Temporal into Space
We knew we wanted to debut Ziggy at Replay 2024, Temporal’s annual user conference, we just didn’t know exactly how. While workshopping our Replay keynote outline, the idea magically came to us, and it seemed like a no-brainer to put Temporal’s durability to the test and send Temporal and Ziggy on an eco-friendly mission into space. So, we did exactly that.
Meet Spencer
Hi! I’m Spencer Judge, an engineer on Temporal's SDK team, whose day-to-day work involves contributing to the core library written in Rust that powers our SDKs—except for Go and Java. But sometimes, working at a startup means you get pulled into unexpected and exciting projects. One of those moments came when Candace, our Head of Design, asked if I could help send Temporal into space.
Ziggy after a space-suit-sleeve-cape fitting.
I was intrigued. Who wouldn’t be? It turns out the idea was to attach a Raspberry Pi 5 running a Temporal worker and a cell phone to a weather balloon and send it to the stratosphere. The goal? To showcase how Temporal’s robust fault tolerance and durability hold up, even in extreme conditions. Naturally, I said yes.
The Challenge
With just a week to pull this off, I had limited information:
- We’d use a Raspberry Pi 5 to run the Temporal worker.
- A USB-connected sensor would provide real-time GPS coordinates, altitude data, and more.
- I had a sample data file to mimic the sensor’s output for testing.
The realistic approach would’ve been to send periodic signals back to Temporal Cloud, but where’s the fun in that? Instead, I aimed to run a full Temporal worker onboard the Pi. This approach would allow us to demonstrate Temporal’s ability to recover from connectivity loss and seamlessly continue operations—a core promise of our platform.
Building the Application
Here’s how it all came together:
- I wrote a simple Workflow in Python that invoked an Activity every five seconds. The Activity’s job was to read data from a queue, parse it, and return the processed information.
- Each data return was stored in Temporal’s Event History, allowing us to monitor GPS and altitude data directly in the Temporal UI.
- I created a class to handle the USB sensor data. It connected to the device, parsed the incoming text line by line, and fed it into the queue for the Temporal Worker to process.
- Using Python’s Serial library, I set up the connection, which (after some trial and error) worked reliably—well, mostly. The sensor required a manual reset each time it was initialized, so we made sure the launch team in the UK knew the exact procedure.
Testing and Deployment
Due to time constraints, I only had about an hour to test the setup remotely with the UK-based flight team. Despite the tight timeline, everything aligned. The data flowed from the sensor to the queue, the Temporal worker processed it, and the system worked flawlessly in the simulation.
Ziggy is mounted to the space-rig and is ready for blastoff.
The Launch
Launch day arrived. The Raspberry Pi was strapped in, Ziggy was ready, and the countdown began. With a weather balloon as its vessel, Temporal took flight.
Here’s what we witnessed:
- The device collected and processed sensor data as it climbed.
- When the connection inevitably dropped in the upper atmosphere, Temporal handled it seamlessly, logging the interruption and resuming operations once connectivity was restored.
- The workflow continued running, providing a real-time demonstration of Temporal’s fault-tolerance capabilities in a genuinely extreme environment.
A screenshot of the Temporal Cloud Web UI reconnects after descending back to the Earth’s surface.
Takeaways
This project wasn’t just about sending Temporal into space—it was about showcasing its resilience. While I knew Temporal would work (after all, we built it for reliability), the real-world challenges of working with hardware added an extra layer of excitement. Seeing everything come together and watching Temporal perform flawlessly was a proud moment for our team.
This experiment wasn’t just about sending Temporal into space—it was about proving that no matter how extreme the conditions, Temporal just works.
Both Temporal and Ziggy survived the trip and landed gently in a random field.
Temporal in Kerbal Space
Even if Temporal isn’t planning on doing real rocket science, it’s great for pretend rockets! Inspired by seeing Ziggy touch the edge of the atmosphere, Sean Gillespie, an infrastructure engineer at Temporal, had a little fun using Temporal Workflows to write an orbital computer for Kerbal Space Program. Temporal is rock solid, even if your Kerbal engineering isn’t. You’re up, NASA!
What’s Next for Ziggy?
While Ziggy’s journey is just beginning, we’re already planning the next steps. We’ll continue to expand Ziggy’s world with different emotions, accessories, and customization options. Plus, there’s plenty more Ziggy swag in the works, so stay tuned for exciting updates.
Have you met Ziggy yet? Share your thoughts, tag us on social media with your Ziggy swag, and join us in celebrating Temporal’s mission to keep the world running—reliably and adorably.
Ziggy poses for the camera while enjoying a sunset on the beach.
One small step for Ziggy and one giant leap for your Workflows. Try your hand at creating something great with a free trial of Temporal Cloud with $1,000 in free credits.