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Space Colony Art from the 1970s

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Re: Space Colony Art from the 1970s

#5
How 'serious' were these pictures?

Was this something they were seriously expecting in the coming years?

I'm mindful of the fact that man had basically gone from just achieving orbit, to landing on the moon in a decade, so anything could have seemed possible at that stage.

Re: Space Colony Art from the 1970s

#6
post #5

How 'serious' were these pictures? Was this something they were seriously expecting in the coming years? I'm mindful of the fact that man had basically gone from just achieving orbit, to landing on the moon in a decade, so anything could have seemed possible at that stage.

Well, riding on the tails of literally landing on the moon, the future must've looked bright and amazing. It probably would've been if the same amount of work and money continued to pour into the space programs. Space - the final frontier and all.

Re: Space Colony Art from the 1970s

#7
post #5

How 'serious' were these pictures? Was this something they were seriously expecting in the coming years? I'm mindful of the fact that man had basically gone from just achieving orbit, to landing on the moon in a decade, so anything could have seemed possible at that stage.

Yes. In the eighties, we seriously expected that such space habitats might be built in the next few decades. It was a reasonable extrapolation from the rapid progress that had occurred in recent decades.

Re: Space Colony Art from the 1970s

#9
Some of these arise from of Gerard O’Neill work on space colonies. I saw these in National Geographic in the late 70s they were hugely inspirational to me.

Note while Musk advocates settling Mars Bezos has indicated a preference for space colonies such as O’Neills.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Neill_cylinder

Re: Space Colony Art from the 1970s

#10
post #5

How 'serious' were these pictures? Was this something they were seriously expecting in the coming years? I'm mindful of the fact that man had basically gone from just achieving orbit, to landing on the moon in a decade, so anything could have seemed possible at that stage.

I suspect no less serious than the various other projects that had concept artwork. Seemed like the 70s and 80s TV news regularly had plans, including an aspirational artist's impression, for a NASA moonbase, orbital ring space station, or Mars mission etc. Couldn't say how serious or not, but serious enough to have made it to UK media back then, fairly regularly. The obvious question after 1972's Apollo 17, was "what's next?".

We got Skylab, the Space Shuttle, lots of fascinating probes to other planets, and satellites themselves of course, but those were rather less "grand" in scope. No doubt budget driven.

To be fair though, if NASA can't dream big, who can? :)

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