Swedish Artist's Miniature House Set for Historic Moon Landing

A Swedish artist, Mikael Genberg, is about to have his dream of a lifetime fulfilled. His miniature red model house, known as the Moonhouse, will be launched into space this week and, if all goes according to plan, placed on the surface of the moon.

The Moonhouse, the size of a large hand, will hitch a ride to the moon on a lunar lander operated by the Japanese company ispace. It's set for takeoff on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral at 1:11 a.m. Wednesday.

Genberg has been wanting to put his typically Swedish-looking miniature house on the moon for 25 years. He describes the idea as "a crazy, maybe idiotic, but at the same time, in my mind, really poetic thought to put a red house with white corners on the surface of the moon."

Genberg is currently in Florida to watch Wednesday's launch in person. He is excited to finally see his house get shot into space. "It's small on this planet, but it will be big on the moon — there's nothing like that in space," he said.

The house is made out of aluminum and daubed with a special, space-certified paint. It's 12 centimeters (4.7 inches) long, 8 cms (3.1 inches) wide and 10 cms (3.9 inches) tall.

Genberg's signature art project has already traveled the world in recent years. The Moonhouse has been installed up in trees, underwater, was taken to the Great Wall of China, and even to the International Space Station 400 kilometers (248 miles) above Earth as a companion to Sweden's first astronaut, Christer Fuglesang.

While it was Genberg's idea to put the house on the moon with the help of lunar rover Tenacious, about 70 people donated some 7 million - 10 million Swedish kronor ($620,000 - $888,000) for the project, which also includes the flight.

"The vision of the artwork merges with our own; to expand our planet and future, and to extend the sphere of human life into space," said Julien-Alexandre Lamamy, the CEO of ispace Europe.

If the launch is successful, Genberg says that once the rover lands on the moon in about four months, "it should release the house, take some pictures and leave it alone standing there for thousands and thousands and maybe millions of years.