Wesley Stine spent two months creating a concept for a 1,000-person Mars colony, pouring over details about its physical layout, power supply, industrial capabilities, agriculture, economics, political organization, culture and, even, how the colony would be decorated.

It was all to meet requirements of The Mars Colony Prize, a competition held by The Mars Society.

Naturally, Stine wanted to punctuate the time spent on the 20-page design concept with an ideal name. Considering his opinion that an underground cave is the best location for a colony, “Menegroth” seemed perfect: It’s a city in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Silmarillion,” a prequel to “The Lord of the Rings” series.

“Tolkien is very popular among the nerd population,” Stine said with a laugh, “so you might as well name it after an underground elf city.”

The name probably earned Stine points, but it’s the totality of the concept that helped him become one of 10 finalists for a $10,000 first-place prize. Second- and third-place prizes also are awarded, earning $5,000 and $2,500.

Stine, a master’s student in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, will find out where his design concept stacked up on Oct. 19, when the finalists present their concepts to a group of 10 judges during the Mars Society Convention at the University of Southern California.

Already, though, Stine is a winner. His 20-page submission will be included in a book, “Mars Colonies” Plans for Settling the Red Planet,” along with the other 24 semi-finalists.

“I was excited even being in the top 25 since I get published,” Stine said. “In July, I got told I’m in the top 10. So far, I’ve cleared both hurdles. So I feel pretty good about it.”

Stine’s proposal will be pitted against a global field of finalists. Stine is the only individual who was selected; all of the other finalists were teams, including entrants from the United States, Russia, Poland, Sweden and France.

He’s interested to see the other concepts and how others answered the challenges of colonization.

For Stine, the location of the colony was a no-brainer: Natural lava tubes caves beneath Mars’ surface. He proposed sealing the tubes with cement, filling them with breathable air and warming them with a lakeside nuclear reactor. Colonists would spend much of the time in the tubes so they’re not exposed to radiation more than necessary, to leave the colony to mine for water and metals, for example.

Stine designed Menegroth in a smooth-floored lava tube about 120 meters in diameter (394 feet) and 2 kilometers in length (1.2 miles) used for habitation.

“To me, the benefits of living in a natural tube, versus having to build buildings yourself, are just too big to pass up. Nature has already put something there for you, you need to use it,” he said.

For power, Stine opted for a nuclear reactor over solar power because solar power would require a huge amount of area to support 1,000 people — and it’d be lost during dust storms. There certainly is a downside, too, to nuclear power, considering there are no large bodies of water to cool it. But Stine’s solution is creating a lake within the lava tube and hauling tons of ice into the colony daily to keep the lake stocked. The reactor would pipe out steam into the atmosphere.

For food, Stine’s concept includes 30 greenhouses with one professional per greenhouse, assisted by children. The regolith of Mars, once treated, would produce iron-rich soil for growing terrestrial crops. Stine’s proposal mentioned students at Villanova University successfully grew vegetables in simulated Martian soil. A plant-based diet would be the primary source of food, but Stine proposed also bringing a handful of small animals to Mars that could be used for food.

To support the colony, Menegroth would begin in a state of heavy dependency on imports. Over time, it would balance its trade with Earth through the export of precious metals, scientific research and entertainment media. Stine appreciated the inclusion of an economic requirement in the competition, adding depth to the submissions.

“I do believe a lot of the thinking that goes into Mars colonization is wishful thinking,” Stine said. “The idea that we’re ever going to have as many people living in space as on Earth is, I think, wishful thinking. The disadvantages and expenses of living in space are so great that I think we’re only ever going to want to have a small portion of the population do it. It’s only going to make sense as long as they can do something there that’s worth the expense of sending people to space and supporting them there. A Mars colony, you can produce food, water and a basic bulk material, such as iron, clay, cement, copper, perhaps, nitrates, but the technology to keep people alive in space is very complicated and it takes complex supply chains involving millions of people back on Earth in order to mine all the scarce materials, in order to make all the fine electronics and everything you need in order to make spacesuits, rockets, everything like that. So the supply chain needed to keep people on Mars involves millions who are going to live on Earth.

“This colony, it’s going to be small compared to the population of Earth and it’s only going to last as long as it can make itself useful to the people on Earth. That’s what I think a lot of people who plan out Mars colonies do not think about.”

Stine will find out what others think about based-in-reality approach soon. Until then, he has continued to entertain thoughts about living on Menegroth. Realistically, he doesn’t think such a proposition will be achieved in his lifetime, but he’d be game.

“If it was getting built, I would be willing to go there and live there,” he said. “It’d be a tough life, but it’d be scientifically rewarding. You’d get to use your scientific knowledge every day, not just the research and looking for life on Mars, but just keeping yourself alive becomes a scientific challenge.

“Even though, in practice, I do not expect this to be built during my lifetime, it was still enjoyable to design. Even though I don’t share a lot of the wishful thinking ideas about these million-person, self-supporting colonies, I’m still very much in favor of scientific exploration of Mars. I would like to see people go there and hunt for fossil life. I don’t think it will ever be home for mankind in the way that Earth is. But I think it is definitely worth exploring and finding more about what’s there.”