Space.com has a collection of awesome and highly optimistic renderings of space colonies, as seen from the 1970s.
Can you imagine a fully-fledged farm in space? Now, this was post-moon landing, and the sense of conquering space seemed more plausible than it does today. The designs showcase an absolute belief that humanity could create anything, including these staggeringly huge spacecraft, which had whole towns and countrysides inside them.
We’ve seen only a few of these in pop culture, most notably in Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium, featuring a floating space colony, called a Stanford Torus, circa 2154.
Take a look at these beautiful and highly optimistic designs, which would present an unimaginably unique life in space.
An artist’s depiction of the interior view of Bernal Spheres colony, including human powered flight, from space colony summer studies conducted at NASA Ames in the 1970s.
An artist’s depiction of the cutaway view, exposing the interior from space colony summer studies conducted at NASA Ames in the 1970s.
In the 1970s, scientists at NASA’s Ames Research Center conducted three different studies into how humanity might build colossal space colonies in the form of giant stations. See the wild ideas put to form in these vintage NASA artist illustrations.
An artist’s depiction of a construction crew at work on the Bernal Spheres colony from space colony summer studies conducted at NASA Ames in the 1970s.
An artist’s depiction of agricultural modules in a cutaway view from space colony summer studies conducted at NASA Ames in the 1970s.
An artist’s depiction of the cutaway view of the Bernal Spheres colony, exposing the interior from space colony summer studies conducted at NASA Ames in the 1970s.
An artist’s depiction of construction along the torus rim of the colonies—one of the three space colony summer studies that were conducted at NASA Ames in the 1970s.
An artist’s depiction of the interior view from space colony summer studies conducted at NASA Ames in the 1970s. By Don Davis.
Here, an artist depicts the exterior view from one wheel-shaped space colony concept.
