In mid-August 2023, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen begins his new mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission has been named Huginn, after one of Odin’s two ravens. In connection with the mission, Posta Faroe Islands and Tusass Greenland publish a joint stamp issue on August 11, 2023 consisting of a souvenir sheet from each postal service. A joint souvenir folder containing both mint souvenir sheets became also available. During this initial long-term mission to the International Space Station, Andreas Mogensen will spend six months on board. There, he will conduct scientific experiments, ranging from virtual reality and sleep to climate science.

The design of the stamp is based on the title of the mission, Odin’s mythical raven Huginn, and how it serves as a symbol of science and the accumulation of scientific information.  There is a rather special convergence between the Inuit culture and the old Norse culture in shamanism, although the Norse Huginn does not exist in Greenlandic culture. When Odin sends both ravens Huginn and Muninn across the different worlds of the Norse universe, he appears as the shaman, who aided by his animistic helpful spirits, gathers information about the state of affairs. In Inuit cultures, the Angakkoq, shaman, also deploys his helpful spirits to retrieve information about the wider world beyond the settlement.
The line art drawing on the left side of the souvenir sheet depicts a scene in which the Greenlandic Angakkoq is communicating with the raven spirit Qaartuluk, while the illustration on the right side of the sheet depicts Odin in the process of receiving Huginn, at home in Asgard. Note that both ravens have an ornamental eye on their body, which symbolises that they are the ’eye of the shaman’ and not ordinary ravens. The large raven on the stamp has neutral ornamentation, so it can represent both the Norse and the Inuit cultural spheres. The sheets displays also the symbol of the mission and Andreas Mogensen portrait.

This issue, originally presented as involving also Denmark, is eventually limited to the two postal administrations. Flight is scheduled for August 25, 2023.