Let's turn the moon into a giant solar power plant

Back in 2007, physicist Dr. David Criswell came up with the idea for the Lunar Solar Power System (or LSPS), which would see harvested solar energy on the moon beamed back to Earth via microwave. Now, one designer is showing what that could look like.

The design comes by way of Bryna Anderson, a graduate student from Columbia University, who took all the marbles in the 2010 Moon Capital International Design Challenge. Engineering-wise, it works the same as the LSPS, gathering energy via photovoltaic cells and using microwave generators to beam that power back to points all across the planet Earth.

What's crazy, though, is how the architecture on the moon can deviate from what we expect here on the planet. Rather than something flat and huge like a field, Anderson has gone for a spire that houses the plant, the cells and the workers, and looks darn cool to boot. Constructing such a spire would be tricky, though — unless we get robots to do it.

Down below are a few more images for you to piece out — all in all, this is one zany looking spire!