The Aurelia Prize returns with a $100,000 grand prize and a new challenge to create imaginative and technically rigorous visions for lunar settlements

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — How might we design lunar settlements that expand humanity’s access to space: homes, labs, and factories on the Moon that benefit life across the Earth-moon system?

Entering its second year as a global design competition, the Aurelia Prize invites designers, architects, and engineers from around the world to answer this question with designs for lunar settlements that center utility, comfort, exploration, scientific excellence, and human dignity above all.

Submissions are open through January 15, 2027 for architectural concepts of any form — surface bases, orbital stations, live-in rover fleets, energy infrastructure, mining outposts, civic spaces, or something no one has proposed yet — that advance a bold, yet feasible, vision of sustained human presence on the moon.

“We launched the Aurelia Prize last year in honor of the 1975 NASA Summer Study, with the idea of continuing that tradition of far-reaching design concepts that thoughtfully address the practical needs and complex challenges of becoming a spacefaring society,” says Ariel Ekblaw, founder and CEO of Aurelia Institute.

“I’m very excited to see what unique new designs and concepts we spark this year. 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.”

Visit the Aurelia Prize page for complete criteria and submission details, including eligibility, entry fee, and deadlines. 

The winning entry of the 2027 Aurelia Prize will receive a cash award of up to USD 100,000.

The winner(s) and finalists will be invited to Aurelia Institute’s Beyond the Cradle conference at MIT in 2027. The winner(s) may also be invited to join a future parabolic research flight with the Aurelia team.

Prize Judges

Norman Foster – President of the Norman Foster Foundation, Founder and Executive Chairman of Foster + Partners

Victor Glover – NASA astronaut emeritus, 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 – Award-winning science fiction author

Gui Trotti – President of Trotti & Associates, Inc.

Dr. Ariel Ekblaw – Founder and CEO, Aurelia Institute; Co-founder, Rendezvous Robotics; Founding Director, MIT Space Exploration Initiative

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SOURCE Aurelia Institute