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Designs unveiled for Moontopia, the self-sufficient lunar colony

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Ever since the great space race of the 1960s, mankind has dreamt of living amongst the stars, and whilst the concept of lunar colonisation has been a mainstay of science fiction for decades, it's only recently that the idea appears to be broaching the realms of possibility. Hoping to make these dreams appear closer to reality, the ambitious and hopelessly romantic “Moontopia” competition was launched last year to ask architects and designers to visualise life on the moon, and last week, nine space-age designs were revealed as the winners. Entrants to Moontopia were asked to draw up plans for a self-sufficient lunar colony for living, working, researching and space tourism. One winner and eight runners up were selected from hundreds of proposals submitted to the competition, which was organised by architecture and design magazine Eleven, and ran from August to November 2016. The nine top entries to the competition (below) were selected by a jury of NASA designers, space-architects, academics and the editorial team at Eleven. Which one is your favourite? Or do you feel even the most realistic designs here are still a little too “out there?” Feel free to let me know in the comments.

WINNER: Test Lab by Monika Lipinska, Laura Nadine Olivier and Inci Lize Ogun

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The winning project is based around the gradual colonisation of the moon through 3D printing and self assembly. The carbon-fibre structures, based on origami, would be assembled by astronauts in the projects initial stages, with the chance for space tourism as the colony becomes more established. Of all the proposals it certainly seems the most cost-effective and reasonable, though not, perhaps, the most exciting. Also, I can't help noticing that the structures themselves look like deformed versions of the Spaceship Earth dome at Epcot in Disney World.

RUNNER-UP: Momentum Virium by Sergio Bianchi, Jonghak Kim, Simone Fracasso, Alejandro Jorge Velazco Ramirez

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The runner-up in the competition proposes a habitat that could be used to investigate and exploit the moon's resources without damaging them. Rather than building directly on the moon's surface, instead the habitat would be tethered to it by a cable and orbit around it. This looks very cool indeed, with a design that resembles the structure of an atom and obvious benefits when it comes to flexibility, given that it wouldn't actually be built on the moon's surface.

PEOPLE'S CHOICE: Modulpia by Alessandro Giorgi, Cai Feng, Siyuan PanEsteban Analuiza

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Voted as the people's choice award through an online vote, Modulpia is a modular settlement designed for ease of construction and assembly. The settlement would be organised in phases, with a factory installed first, and followed by research laboratories and accommodation for researchers. It has been described by its designers as being a “kids game” to put together, though I'd have my reservations there. It also appears to be built into the actual rock of the moon itself, which is neat!

Platinum City by Sean Thomas Allen

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Given the first of six honourable mentions in the competition, this proposal provides homes for up to 3,000 post-human moon citizens. The habit would support the first post-human industry of asteroid mining, as well as space tourism. It's easily the most ambitious and impressive design, with the city itself bringing to mind the dense Metropolis of the classic science fiction film of the same name. For sheer scale and spectacle, this one is definitely top of my list, but then I've always been a fan of the overblown and the ludicrous.

Upside Down by Ryan Tung Wai Yin, Ho Wing Tsit Teresina, Joshua Ho

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The second honourable mention went to Upside Down, a concept for interplanetary exploration and subsequent colonisation. Using the moon as a test site to gather experience and resources, inhabitants would then move to colonies on Mars. From the image above it appears to resemble to Halo from the game of the same name or the Citadel from the Mass Effect series. In fact, many of the designs have definitely taken their inspirations from popular science fiction. How could they not?

Womb by Prapatsorn Sukkaset, Saran Chamroonkul

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Honourable mention number three, Womb, imagines the moon as a place of contemplation and sanctuary from the 'materialistic' planet Earth. Here, people live in bubbles rather than houses, and float from place to place. I'm not too sure about this one. The designs don't seem to reflect the concept, at least on first glance, and the description sounds oddly sinister to me.

Looking through the Moon Eye by Yiling Chu, Yao Ding, Yan-Fei Jiang, Hui Tian

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The fourth mention was handed out to a plan to build communities within the moon's craters. Protective covers would help to fend off asteroids, but also host observation telescopes. The science behind this is obviously unproven, but, for a layman such as myself, it at least sounds plausible, and given the propensity of large craters on the moon, it certainly makes sense to utilise them in some way other than simply building around them.

Lunar Oasis by Edward Chew

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The fifth project, Lunar Oasis, is based on a hypothetical scenario that takes place 140 years after man's first landing on the moon in 2110. In this third wave of the moon's human colonisation, an oasis would created in response to people's wellbeing in relation to the built environment. There was definitely a little more forethought and planning that went into this design I think, and the concept of what is essentially a gigantic version of the Eden Project is certainly interesting.

The Aerosphere by Stephanie Stiers

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The final honourable mention went to easily the smallest habitat submitted to the competition. The Aerosphere focuses on space tourism, facilitating short-term trips of one lunar day in a transparent sphere. It's basically a bubble that attaches to individual travellers, allowing them to navigate the naked surface of the moon without fear of floating off into space or oxygen starvation. It does pose one interesting question though. Has Stephanie Stiers ever seen “The Prisoner?”

Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and struggling musician from Kidderminster in the UK.

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