8 Ways NASA Planned To Colonize Space

[DrStrangelove]

8 Ways NASA Planned To Colonize Space

In the seventies NASA commissioned artists to produce what they thought space colonies would look like. NASA has thankfully released these to the public for our viewing pleasure. So check out what our potential future after we've ravaged our own planet and have to escape to space.

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[Vendor-Lazarus]

Nice old-timey illustrations that's still relevant today, perhaps even more so.
These classics all seem to invert our familiar sphere strangely enough. Even the fabled Dyson sphere's do.

Also, I wonder if self-contained habitats are one of the those things that easier to maintain in a larger format rather then starting out small.

Anyway, nice read, thanks!

 

[Extragorey]

To quote Alexandru Georgescu (someone who commented on Facebook)...
[blockquote]Sooo, 8 images not 8 ways to colonize. You just gave one - space habitats. And, within that, you gave three design variants - the Bernal Sphere, Stanford torus and O'Neill Cylinder. Sorry for the nitpick.[/blockquote]
I was hoping to see some terraforming or at least some domes on the Moon or something.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

I love how all of these concepts have huge windows the just scream "Come at me, bro!" to every micro-meteoroid in the solar system. I'd use fiber optics and light pipes with redundant ways to seal in the atmosphere in case of damage.

I was hoping to see some terraforming or at least some domes on the Moon or something.

Yeah, where are the Moon domes, hollowed out near-Earth asteroids, or inflatable Mars bases? Most of these drawings look like covers from 70s scifi novels. They don't even look small enough to be feasible with our current predictions of near future space travel. That's why near-Earth asteroids are all the rage today; close by, some building materials are there, and less fuel necessary for return trips.