When astronauts go to the international space station, they spend several years learning about the structure, systems and how to fix things if they go wrong as you can’t call on anyone else to help you. “This structure is what will keep us alive over the next three months – so the consequences of something going wrong are really serious. ![]() Sebastian is fully aware of the dangers, and how important it is to ensure the habitat structure is prepared for all scenarios. The unique position of the Lunark mission is that they are deliberately emulating the moon by making Sebastian and Karl “feel the struggle to survive in the extreme reality north of the arctic circle”. On the mission website, the team point out that current missions carried out by the space industry do not involve real danger. Heavily compressed image shared with mission control via satellite phone. Here the sun shines over 80% of the time, similar to the conditions in Moriusaq.” Sebastian and Karl outside the module in Greenland at the beginning of the expedition. “The planned destination for the first Moon settlements is the South pole of the Moon, known as the Peak of Eternal Light. There are only two places in the world which fit that description: the North and South Poles. ![]() “You can’t just go outside if you’re on the moon! For us to get the most realistic experience we wanted the landscape to be completely monotone, like the moon. “The problem with other missions is that they become theatrical because the people involved can still go outside if they want. “We wanted it to be cold and difficult,” adds Sebastian. The location was chosen because it represents the closest possible match on earth to the inhospitable conditions on the moon. The Lunark mission takes place in Moriusaq, an abandoned settlement in the arctic north of Greenland. It just so happens that I’m an architect, so naturally I now work to build habitats and structures for space.” Sebastian and Karl in front of the assembled module before folding it down for transit to Greenland. If I was a novelist I would write books about it. As Sebastian puts it: “If I had been a film director, I would have made films about space. I remember reading it and thinking: ‘This makes complete sense!’”įrom there the rest, as they say, is history. “I started reading books by people like Robert Zubrin, who has dedicated his entire life to explaining why going to Mars is the most logical step for humans. But years later – at the point when I was preparing to go to university to study architecture – suddenly there was a wealth of information online about how space travel was much more tangible for us than we thought. “I remember that hit me really hard and knocked by dream offline for a few years while I focused on school and other ‘boring’ stuff. ![]() “When I was a teenager, I read a quote that said my generation was born too late to explore the earth and too early to explore the universe,” he says. It doesn’t take long in his company to understand that this expedition is the culmination of years spent realising a dream he first had as a young boy. In talking to Sebastian, you cannot fail to be swept along by his enthusiasm and excitement. The landscape of icebergs looks beautiful through our Google Hangouts window, but it serves as a reminder of the harsh conditions that lay ahead in one of the most difficult terrains on earth. Sitting in a hotel off the coast of Greenland, Sebastian lifts his laptop to show us the view from his window. Courtesy SAGA Space Architects Reaching for the moon Ahead of their journey into the arctic north of Greenland we caught up with one of the modern-day explorers, Sebastian Aristotelis, before he and his partner, Karl-Johan Sørensen, set out on their three-month arctic mission. This isn’t the set-up for a punchline, but the reality for two architects who are testing a habitat, designed and built for future missions to the moon. Hungry polar bears stalk the icy landscape, unforgiving winds blow at -30☌… and two Danes bundled in thick coats build an origami-inspired structure in the snow. In deepest Greenland the arid landscape stretches out, unchanging, for what looks like hundreds of miles.
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