NASA space colony concepts from the 1970s

NASA truly does love to dream the impossible dream – once its napkin has been folded seven times, NASA just folds it again, forcing it into negative space and causing untold bedlam in exotic dimensions. What are we blathering about? Space farming of course!

Images have surfaced on the interwebs that illustrate NASA’s vision of a space colony, circa 1970. The designs, besides their flagrant disregard for things like intergalactic planning permission (we hear the architect assessment fees are astronomical, arf arf ect.), are stunning realizations of how we will probably never live.

Featuring hanging gardens, ample farmland with lots of greenery and beautiful lakes, the images are more imaginative than they are scientific. The images came about due to a number of space colony studies conducted in the 70s, which included regular competitions for designers to flaunt their visions of space settlements.

A designer’s quote accompanying one set of impressive images reads:

“These orbital space colonies could be wonderful places to live; about the size of a California beach town and endowed with weightless recreation, fantastic views, freedom, elbow-room in spades, and great wealth. In time, we may see hundreds of thousands of orbital space settlements in our solar system alone. Building these settlements will be an evolutionary event in magnitude similar to, if not greater than, ocean-based Life’s colonization of land half a billion years ago.”

As Brian Wilson once famously sang, ‘wouldn’t it be nice’…

Source: NASA