Even NASA was young and idealistic once, and the late '70s must have been a particularly heady time. One day, presumably after the sparking of multiple bowls, the organisation's head rocket scientists agreed to fund physicist Gerard O'Neill. And what did O'Neill do with that money? Why, he designed space colonies, of course! Far-fucking-out.
WIRED says NASA described these idyllic galactic suburbs as "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."
(photos from NASA)Life in space would also involve "outdoor" buffets, if the illustration above is anything to go by.
Incidentally, I went to see the Star Trek movie last night. O'Neill, imagineer of all this glorious futurism, reminds me of a certain someone.
Yeah, you weren't the first one to see the resemblance. One writer, talking about O'Neill getting into a bit of a disagreement with another space scientist, said that O'Neill demonstrated that not only did he look like Spock, but was equally as unflappable.
ReplyDeleteAnd I still haven't given up on O'Neill colonies coming about someday, even if not right away. I maintain a website on this topic at http://space.mike-combs.com .