September 2020 marked a life-changing moment for SAGA Space Architects - and especially for Sebastian and Karl-Johan. Together, they embarked on a 60-day expedition in Northern Greenland, living in the LUNARK habitat.

The goal was ambitious: to test the boundaries of human resilience, architectural design in extreme conditions that mimic life on the Moon. In total isolation, far away from people, without internet access, and with only rare opportunities to connect with loved ones, the mission became as much about the human spirit as it was about science and design.

Daily Rituals

Inside LUNARK, every day was dedicated to testing the habitat, running experiments, and adapting to a new rhythm of survival. Yet what made the experience truly human were the small rituals that anchored them back to everyday life. One of the most impactful traditions was the daily satellite phone message sent back to SAGA headquarters in Copenhagen. These short notes captured not only progress reports but also feelings of joy, exhaustion, humor, and longing.

Looking back, the mission messages feel like a time capsule - tiny windows into the raw, unfiltered life inside LUNARK.

Mission Message Archive

You can read the full mission report from the project page but here are just a few of our favorites that never fail to bring a smile:

18 SEP

Started melting ice for water. We each use 7,5 liters a day here. That's much less than the 105 liters an average person uses in DK. Not showering helps.

28 SEP

We just saw the Northern Lights for the first time!! Mesmerizing 🌈 Funfact: we are so far north that it's actually "Southern Lights".

23 OCT

Went on a long spacewalk up a nearby mountain. Our surroundings are so beautiful. But also barren and vast. It made us feel happy and small.

25 OCT

Had a slow day on top of last night's party. Which btw was great. Everyone was dancing and the neighbors didn't even complain about the music.

01 NOV

We celebrated Halloween and our first day of darkness - by dressing up in hat and wig, watching a horror-film, and eating rationed candy from last care package.

02 NOV

Testing some new colours on our circadian lights. We're both the lab rats and the researchers in this experiment. It creates some bias, but also opportunities!

18 NOV

We're not only physically confined here. We're also informationally confined. The list of things we want to look up but can't, Is getting overwhelmingly long.

28 NOV

LUNARK is concrete evidence that a two-person crew in a small habitat can carry out an extended mission in Moon-like conditions. An exciting future awaits!

Scientific Insights from LUNARK

Now, looking back at the expedition, we realize what an exciting culmination of events it was and how our first space habitat was just the beginning of a long journey of space exploration. During the expedition, we also gathered a lot of biometric, environmental and communication data, which has helped to understand space training and missions better. We are excited that the mission provided us a lot of valuable data that now has also been used for scientific research, which you can explore here.