About

Terra Nordica is a long-term, self-directed project that combines engineering realism with speculative world-building. Its goal is to explore what a credible human Mars migration system could look like—technically, socially, and operationally— while actively developing the skills required to model it. I am making it in hope to inspire myself and others to the possibility of going to The Red Planet!

The project is a made up world set in the 2060s where humanity fights for control of space. When you enter the website you become a someone dreaming about joining a space adventure, or an engineer facinated by the spacecrafts. In other words you become part of the world! The only place on the site that breaks that immersion is Blue Dot Blog, Contact and About pages.

• Astrophysics & orbital mechanics – is a very important part of the project for me. I’m a hard sci-fi fan, and physical realism is essential for Terra Nordica to feel attainable. Since my background is in engineering physics, this is also one of the most enjoyable parts of the work. It includes calculating Hohmann transfers, delta-V budgets, mass and fuel requirements, gravity simulation, and working through the real constraints and problems a human Mars mission would face using Matlab, Python, and other specialized software.
• Space systems design – is the seed of how the project started. For years, I found myself thinking about habitat architecture, life support systems, radiation shielding, and propulsion concepts, often out of boredom. Eventually, I wanted to get it all down on paper, and from there the project snowballed into what it is today. At some point, Utopia became so detailed in my head that I wanted to see it visualized and simulated.
• 3D modelling & visualization – is my weakest area and I am learning to use Blender to create the spacecraft Utopia, orbital stations, interiors, and planetary environments, etc, which are then used to produce realistic renders and animations. I am determined to improve the visual quality as the project matures. This area would also include using Photoshop and Inkscape to create 2D assets like logo or add text to images, or textures to Blender. After rendering video scenes, I use DaVinci Resolve to edit videos (no example on the site of this at the moment though). I am creating everything myself except for some textures, and models assets from online libraries, and I am planning on using generative AI to do touch ups of my rendered pictures, at least until I get better at modelling myself.
• Web engineering – is new to me but fun. I am mostly using Next.js frontend, Flask backend, PostgreSQL, Docker, NGINX, Cloudflare tunneling.
• System architecture – to deepen my understanding of how large systems are built and operated, I have set up a multi-environment architecture with a local development system using WSL, and a Unix based production host server (“Rocky”) where the site is deployed. The system includes containerized services using Docker, a connected PostgreSQL database, monitoring with Grafana, and source control with Git and GitHub. The architecture is designed to support future expansion, including backend APIs that will power the blog and AI-driven characters and integrate with external social media platforms.
• LLMs & automation – AI-driven characters, simulated crew logs, future decision systems. Using generative AI since I don't know and don't have time to model characters myself yet. The simulated crew logs are a fun way to make the whole thing feel more alive, since I won't have time to write detailed narratives myself.
• World-building & role-play – governance, culture, training programs, daily life during transit and on Mars and much more is added to make the world feel more grounded.