Today I Learned that back in 1975...

… astrophysicists from NASA hired a team of architects, urban planners and engineers to develop schematics for space colonies. It was the summer of ‘75 and planetary health was on the minds of many. The American public was deeply concerned over rising pollution, CO2 emissions, the ozone withering away and habitat loss worldwide. With serious issues at home, these researchers looked into the great unknown for answers. Some seriously innovative flower power promoted a creative space-age outlook inside the NASA Ames Research Center.

The summer program detailed dozens of proposals with scales of orbiting cities ranging from 10,000 humanoids to accommodating population numbers in the trillions. The comprehensive designs covered everything from prefabricated housing to the feasibility of a moon-ore-mining economy. The massive orbiting landscapes challenged engineers to navigate capacities for new civilizations and healthy climates.

“The key advantage of space settlements is the ability to build new land, rather than take it from someone else. This allows a huge expansion of humanity without war or destruction of Earth’s biosphere. The asteroids alone provide enough material to make new orbital land hundreds of times greater than the surface of the Earth, divided into millions of colonies. This land can easily support trillions of people.” quote from “Space Settlements”

(Above) This diagram illustrates proposals for geometric inspired space colonies.

Inspired by space age technology, futurist architectural thinking of the late 1960s and early 70s was unleashed onto its largest and most mysterious canvas. These illustrations were made to channel the hopes and ambitions of a holisticly utopian world.

(Above) This diagram illustrates the extraction of resources from the Moon to supply construction projects within the space colony.

Above, an axonometric diagram revealing modular housing for humanoid habitats. This architectural portion of the study was completed through a department called the Center for Urban Development Research, at Cornell University in 1971.

“The concept of spacecraft Earth, a sphere of finite resources and ominous pollution, became pervasive and powerful at the same time we first received good photographs of our planetary home. The study summarized in this volume is another mind-stretcher. As explained on the following page, settlement in space is not an authorized program, and no man can now say if or when such a dazzling venture may be formally undertaken. But by their efforts to put numbers on an idea, to assess the human and economic implications as well as technical feasibility, the participants in this effort have provided us with a vision that will engage our imagination and stretch our minds.” - Foreword from “Space Settlements”

View To The Future...

“This new vista, suddenly open, changes the entire outlook on the future, not only for those who eventually want to live in extraterrestrial communities but also for those who want to remain on the Earth. In the future, the Earth might be looked upon as an uncomfortable and inconvenient place to live as compared to the extraterrestrial communities. Since a considerable portion of humanity - even most of it - with ecologically needed animals and plants may be living outside the Earth, the meaning, the purpose, and the patterns of life on Earth will also be considerably altered. The Earth might be regarded as a historical museum, a biological preserve, a place which contains harsh climate and uncontrolled weather for those who love physical adventure, or a primitive and primeval place for tourism. This cultural transition may be comparable to the transitions in the biological evolution when the aquatic ancestors of mammals moved onto land or when Man's quadrupedal ancestors became bipedal and bimanual. The opportunity for human expansion into space is offered; it needs only to be grasped.”

All images are from the “Space Settlements : A Design Study” produced in 1975 by the NASA Ames Research Center. (Link here)

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