Photo: IKEA/Oskar Falck
Imagine traveling through space for nearly ten months - that’s how long it takes to reach Mars from Earth - only to reach the Red Planet and have to assemble your research station’s furniture.
Joking aside, representatives from the build-it-yourself Swedish furniture giant IKEA went to the U.S. state of Utah where the Mars Society has a simulated Martian research station set up. It’s called the Mars Desert Research Station (or MDRS) and it was in need of furniture to fill the cylindrical habitat.
The habitat whose diameter is 8 meters did have furniture, but it was in need of an overhaul and the goal was to provide more space-efficient furniture than what it had before. The task fell upon the hands of Christina Levenborn, an interior designer, and IKEA’s take from all of this is that it would learn about outfitting very small living spaces (like the minuscule one-bedroom apartments that are becoming increasingly common in some of the world’s most crowded cities).
What’s pretty cool about all this is that IKEA didn’t design any specific pieces of furniture for the habitat. All the pieces are straight out of the catalog and this is unquestionably one of their most difficult tests yet.
The place is usually inhabited by a team of six researches who live at the research station for up to six months. In order to fit their needs, some of the furniture is stackable and can be stowed away when not used, thus maximizing use of what little available space there is.
We don’t actually expect IKEA to be the company responsible for the outfitting of actual future Mars base camps, at least not with pieces you’d find in the company’s local store. Maybe IKEA could be tasked to design special furniture for this purpose, but an actual Mars mission using the typical stuff you have in your living room doesn’t seem likely.
Besides, we’re not really ready to be Martians just yet, so there’s no pressure to design any bespoke furniture for Mars in the near future.
The habitat whose diameter is 8 meters did have furniture, but it was in need of an overhaul and the goal was to provide more space-efficient furniture than what it had before. The task fell upon the hands of Christina Levenborn, an interior designer, and IKEA’s take from all of this is that it would learn about outfitting very small living spaces (like the minuscule one-bedroom apartments that are becoming increasingly common in some of the world’s most crowded cities).
What’s pretty cool about all this is that IKEA didn’t design any specific pieces of furniture for the habitat. All the pieces are straight out of the catalog and this is unquestionably one of their most difficult tests yet.
The place is usually inhabited by a team of six researches who live at the research station for up to six months. In order to fit their needs, some of the furniture is stackable and can be stowed away when not used, thus maximizing use of what little available space there is.
We don’t actually expect IKEA to be the company responsible for the outfitting of actual future Mars base camps, at least not with pieces you’d find in the company’s local store. Maybe IKEA could be tasked to design special furniture for this purpose, but an actual Mars mission using the typical stuff you have in your living room doesn’t seem likely.
Besides, we’re not really ready to be Martians just yet, so there’s no pressure to design any bespoke furniture for Mars in the near future.
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