how architecture could become a part of the astronautics industry."

Of course humans have been imagining space colonies in drawings and models for more than half a century, as popsci.com reminded readers last month.

SHIFTboston's Moon Capital 2010 competition aimed to smash together two fields that often find themselves at odds: architecture and engineering.

"The tension between what is mostly ideal or perhaps impossible and what is logical and clearly achievable is necessary to arrive at passionate and creative solutions," said contest judge Madhu Thangavelu, a professor of space systems design at University of Southern California. The entries "are mostly exercises in vision and architecture and wholly meant to inform engineers where humanity's priorities lie with respect to human space activity on the moon."

The winning entry by designer Bryna Andersen imaginesa moon base surrounding a massive satellite dish that would collect solar energy and beam it back to Earth. Another concept puts a moon colony in a hole in the ground called a lava tube.

How about this: a giant sports stadium that would serve as the venue for the first site-neutral international athletic games. New sporting events would be introduced that make use of the moon's low gravity, say its designers --two architecture students at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

"We researched a lot of energy producing and capturing technologies that we could incorporate into the project," said Keith Bradley, 23.

Bradley's collaborator, 22-year-old Brian Harms said the colony would include "places for algae farms and other plant life to grow -- for food and to produce oxygen."

Space