On January 15, 2025, a tiny red house, created by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg, is set for a voyage to the Moon. The miniature dwelling—built in a classic Swedish style with white corners—will become the first art object placed on the lunar surface. The idea embodies a crossover between culture and space exploration, inviting curiosity about how art travels beyond Earth.
The palm-sized home will ride on Ispace’s lunar lander, launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral. The mission timeline points to a start in the launch window, with flight plans that put the tiny house on the Moon within a few months of liftoff. The collaboration brings together a private space company and a space-capable launcher in a bid to merge art with space technology.
Genberg first imagined placing a house on the Moon about 25 years ago, long before the current wave of private lunar missions. He has described the concept as a playful, perhaps reckless, yet poetic gesture—a red house with white trim resting on a lifeless, distant world as a beacon of human creativity. The project has evolved through public interest, crowdfunding, and a network of supporters.
His description of the Moon House stresses its boldness and poetry rather than practicality. He frames the project as a provocative statement about exploration and memory, inviting viewers to think about home, place, and the farthest reaches of humanity. The work is shared through videos and public statements rather than formal press notes, reflecting the artist’s preference for open, accessible dialogue about space art.
The Moon House is built from aluminum and coated with space-certified paint designed to endure the harsh conditions of space. Its dimensions are 12 cm in length, 8 cm in width, and 10 cm in height. Over the years, the project has traveled widely, appearing in trees, underwater locations, on the Great Wall of China, and aboard the International Space Station. Crowdfunding brought in roughly 10 million Swedish crowns from more than 70 sponsors, supporting this ambitious art initiative.
Ispace Europe’s CEO Julien-Alexandre Lamami describes the Moon House as a fusion of Genberg’s artistic vision with the company’s broader mission to push human activity in space toward new frontiers. The collaboration highlights how art and space exploration can reinforce each other, inspiring audiences in North America, including Canada and the United States, to imagine space as a shared cultural space beyond science and industry.
If the launch proceeds smoothly, the lander would deliver the house to the lunar surface within about four months. After touchdown, a rover would deploy the miniature home, capture photographs, and leave it in place to endure on the Moon for what could be thousands or even millions of years. The project sits at the intersection of whimsy and scientific curiosity about the Moon and the wider solar system.
The Moon House project sits alongside ongoing research into cosmic phenomena, reminding audiences that science and art frequently travel in tandem as humanity expands its footprint in space. It is a reminder that cultural expression can accompany scientific inquiry on journeys beyond our planet, inviting people in North America to think about how home, memory, and imagination travel with us to the Moon.