Jannicke Mikkelsen, Norway’s first astronaut and Fram2 commander, relies on reMarkable for deep focus in extreme environments—from Svalbard to space. Discover her paperless workflow below.
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Jannicke Mikkelsen has made a career out of pushing boundaries. Living in Longyearbyen, Svalbard—the world's northernmost town—she is used to working off-grid in extreme isolation. In 2025, she took that experience to the ultimate frontier as vehicle commander on the Fram2 mission, the first human spaceflight to fly in a true polar orbit.
In environments where every detail matters, reMarkable plays an essential role in her work. Here are six reasons why this astronaut won't launch without it.
Preparing for spaceflight requires immense mental discipline. For Jannicke, the ability to shut out the world is vital.
"When I was studying to become an astronaut, there was so much I had to learn. Anything that would give me a notification was shut away on flight mode. And then I would have my reMarkable and my curriculum and just turn my brain into sponge mode."
Whether in the Arctic or orbit, connectivity is a luxury, not a given. reMarkable bridges the gap between deep thought and digital sharing.
"I love working offline and off-grid. It's almost a luxury today to not be connected, and that's when I do my best thinking. When I get back home, I can connect to the internet and immediately share my work with partners using the desktop app."
Jannicke is a visual thinker who needs to physically map out her ideas to solve problems.
"I rely on writing notes a lot. To be able to think creatively, I need to physically write. For me it's not good enough to type. I need to be able to write notes, I need to be able to draw my thoughts."
Managing complex flight plans and technical documents requires a tool that is as flexible as it is precise.
"I like to visually lay out my ideas. I need to highlight stuff. And the cool thing with reMarkable is the additional layers: I can write comments and margin notes, and then just hide them. Keeping a clean PDF and the extra layer with my changes."
On stage, Jannicke uses her tablet to adapt her storytelling in real-time.
"I do public speaking. So I will take my talk and break it into pie, with different topics in each slice. Often, I'll write notes on stage while I'm talking, seeing what the audience responds to: 'Okay, is this a technical or an emotional audience?"
Traveling light is essential when your "office" needs to fit in a backpack—or a spacecraft.
"My notebook stack was sky-high. I used to carry three physical notebooks with me. And you know, they're heavy. But I travel a lot, so my office needs to fit into my backpack. Now I can have all my notebooks incorporated in one piece of equipment."
You don't need to go to space to experience the benefits of distraction-free work.
