One year after its inaugural Aurelia Prize in Design for Space Urbanism crowned Will Root and his Tycho space station the winner, the Aurelia Institute has announced a follow-up $100,000 competition for innovative lunar settlement designs that expand humanity’s access to space.
The Aurelia Institute encourages submissions from established engineers and architects. However, an institute spokesperson told The Debrief that the Aurelia Prize for Space Design welcomes submissions from anyone who believes they can meet the contest’s guidelines, including ideas for more science fiction-sounding habitats that mainstream scientists “may not have considered.”
“I’m very excited to see what unique new designs and concepts we spark this year,” founder and CEO of Aurelia Institute Ariel Ekblaw said when announcing the new contest, adding that last year’s panel was “profoundly impressed with the response, and with the depth and rigor of the submissions.”
Along with the financial reward and invitations to future events, the winner will be eligible to take part in an upcoming zero-gravity parabolic flight, where they can potentially test components of their experiments in simulated space conditions.
Aurelia Prize Wants “Imaginative and Technically Rigorous” Lunar Settlement Visions
When announcing the second annual contest, the institute posed a single question for potential contest entries to consider: “How might we design lunar settlements that expand humanity’s access to space (including) homes, labs, and factories on the Moon that benefit life across the Earth-Moon system?”
“The Aurelia Prize invites designers, architects, and engineers from around the world to answer this question with imaginative and technically rigorous visions for lunar settlements that center utility, comfort, exploration, scientific excellence, and human dignity above all,” they explained.
Given the newest contest’s broader “lunar settlements” guidelines, entrants can submit designs for surface bases, orbital stations, live-in rover fleets, energy infrastructure, mining outposts, or civic spaces. The Aurelia spokesperson said entrants can also submit ideas or far-out designs that “advance a bold, yet feasible, vision of sustained human presence on the moon.”
“Though famously a ‘Harsh Mistress’ as Robert Heinlein once wrote, the moon is incredibly fertile ground for innovation in architecture, design, manufacturing, and engineering — and there’s never been a better time to think pragmatically about what we want to build on the moon, and how,” Ekblaw said.
Judges Include NASA Astronaut, Sci-Fi Author, Art & Design Experts
Submissions for the second annual Aurelia Prize for Space Design must include one primary “hero” image that portrays the key components of the overall architectural concept. Entrants can also include up to six additional images of their lunar settlement. The rules state that these can be photographs, drawings, computer renders, image collages, or “laid-out boards with minimal captions,” showing how the lunar settlement addresses the contest’s primary question.
Contest rules also state that each entry should include a 500-word-or-less text description explaining what the settlement is, who it serves and for what, and how the designer envisions it functioning in a lunar environment. The text entry should also address what their concept “contributes to the future of lunar urbanism.”
Critically, a one-page addendum must be included with each entry listing citations that acknowledge the field of prior work. All entries must be in English.
Aurelia’s leader, Dr. Ekblaw, also Co-founder of Rendezvous Robotics and Founding Director of the MIT Space Exploration Initiative, leads a highly esteemed panel tasked with judging lunar settlement entries. This includes Norman Foster, a renowned architect and urbanist; Victor Glover, a NASA astronaut emeritus and pilot of the Artemis II mission to the Moon; Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator of Architecture and Design and Director of Research and Development at MoMA; Adrian Tchaikovsky, an award-winning science fiction author; and Gui Trotti, President of Trotti & Associates, Inc., which is an internationally recognized architect and industrial designer.
Winner and Finalists Readying for Zero-Gravity Flight
After evaluating all entries, due by January 15, 2027, the panel will announce a winner and several finalists. Members of the winning team will split the $100,000 and will join the finalists at the Aurelia Institute’s Beyond the Cradle conference at MIT in April 2027. The group may also take part in future workshops, panels, and other events.
When asked whether the winner and finalists could join the Aurelia team on its zero-gravity parabolic flight, the spokesperson told The Debrief that this year’s winner will definitely be eligible. They also explained that last year’s winner and several other finalists will be taking their flight before the new contest’s entry period is finished.
“The parabolic flight is taking place this month!” the Institute told The Debrief, adding that Root is “flying with an experiment testing a kinematic origami deployable model to test the deployment process in microgravity,” testing the real-world viability of his winning Tycho habitat concept.
“There are also fliers from each of the runner-up teams flying experiments to develop their concepts as well,” the Institute spokesperson explained.
Contest winners are not guaranteed to turn their concepts into real-world lunar settlements. However, Aurelia told The Debrief that last year’s winner was also invited to present at the organization’s “Grand Challenges in Space Architecture” series in San Francisco.
Visit the Aurelia Prize page to find additional submission details, an FAQ, and more. Submit your design here. as well as details on eligibility, entry fee, and deadlines.
Christopher Plain has spent the last six years as Associate News Editor and Head Science Reporter at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his novels at plainfiction.com, or email him at christopher@thedebrief.org.