ONCE upon a time, Nasa believed we would one day end up living in giant inflatable space doughnuts.<\/p>\n
The U.S. space agency designed a wheel-shaped habitat almost five decades ago that would house up to 140,000 residents.<\/p>\n
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In the early 1970s, Nasa was at a crossroads having shut the Apollo programme down and landed astronauts on the Moon.<\/p>\n
Scientists were on the hunt for the next space exploration milestone, with some targeting Mars and others exploring space colonies.<\/p>\n
In 1975, Nasa explored possible designs for a space city in the Summer Study, conducted at Stanford University.<\/p>\n
Possibly the most bonkers scheme proposed was the Stanford Torus, a ring-shaped station that would sit between Earth and the Moon.<\/p>\n
According to Nasa's designs, the Torus would be one mile in diameter and rotate once per minute to provide artificial gravity.<\/p>\n
Between 10,000 and 140,000 people would live on the colony, mining the Moon and nearby asteroids for resources.<\/p>\n
They would live on the inside of the outer ring, farming animals and livestock in fields like those back on Earth.<\/p>\n
Energy would be collected from the Sun using huge solar panels, while gigantic mirrors would reflect dangerous radiation.<\/p>\n
The Stanford Torus was one of three space colony designs proposed in Nasa's Summer Study.<\/p>\n
Artist impressions of the concept were developed byNasa's Ames Research Center and illustrated by Don Davis and Rick Guidice.<\/p>\n
Then-NASA Administrator James Fletcher said that the paper posed big questions for humankind.<\/p>\n
He said that the purpose of the study was \"to assess the human and economic implications as well as technical feasibility.\"<\/p>\n
Fletcher added that \"the participants in this effort have provided us with a vision that will engage our imagination and stretch our minds.\"<\/p>\n
The three stations are icons of speculative design, but Nasa never got close to building them.<\/p>\n
The enormous cost, transport of materials, potential radiation poisoning of residents, and more proved insurmountable challenges.<\/p>\n
The idea was not even new. In 1952, pioneering Nasa engineer Wernher von Braun presented similar concepts for space stations.<\/p>\n
Eventually, however, Nasa did build its space habitat the far-less-luxurious International Space Station.<\/p>\n
The lab orbits 250 miles above Earth and is home to up to six astronauts at a time from space agencies across the globe.<\/p>\n
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We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at tech@the-sun.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Read the original post: <\/p>\n Inside Nasas vision of the future from 47 YEARS ago with humans living in bizarre space tube... - The Sun<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ONCE upon a time, Nasa believed we would one day end up living in giant inflatable space doughnuts. The U.S. space agency designed a wheel-shaped habitat almost five decades ago that would house up to 140,000 residents. Continue reading