London-based Architect is Building Up Some High Expectations

The inspirational quote, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars,” has an entirely new meaning to Lord Norman Foster.  He is shooting for moon; he is going to build there; and that will make him a star.

The London-based architect has out of this world plans with a secret lunar project.  In cohorts with the Aurora program of the European Space Agency, he is joining a European consortium to pitch a development on the moon.

Foster’s firm is most famous for projects that include the British Museum’s Great Court and the rebuilt Reichstag in Germany.  Now, an investigation involving data from the original Apollo moon landing and new information gathered from robot vehicles on Mars is analyzing the adaptation of materials found in space for building purposes.

Although there are no details or elaborations of the plans, a spokesperson at the London headquarters of Foster and Partners confirmed, “there is a tender”—which possibly might be a celestial glass dome.

In addition to the moon project, Foster is also designing a private spaceship.  Scheduled to start launching from the New Mexico desert in 2011, the world’s first private spaceport is for Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.

More about the extraterrestrial developments