Visions of Space Stations

Visions of Space Stations

Over the centuries, artists have envisioned stunning possibilities of our futures in space, from living on distant worlds to constructing orbiting fuel depots. Many of these paintings, drawings, and even models can be found in the collection of the National Air and Space Museum.

Space stations are an especially popular subject, since they’ve long been considered an essential step in exploring the solar system. One such model is a prop that appeared in the 1955 Walt Disney TV show “Man in Space,” which depicted Wernher von Braun’s idea for a spinning wheel—250-feet across—that would serve as a staging ground for landing astronauts on the moon. Arguably, though, the most iconic depiction of a space station is Robert McCall’s painting, “Orion Leaving Space Station,” which illustrated movie theater posters for the 1968 cinematic masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey.

These and other depictions of vast spinning space stations—which created gravity through centrifugal force—were popular until the 1970s, says former NASA historian Roger Launius, who was also an associate director for collections and curatorial affairs at the Museum. But missions such as Skylab demonstrated that the technologically complex task of spinning a station wasn’t essential, given the short-term stays of the astronauts. Launius recalls how, in the 1990s, whenever he spoke with congressional staffers about space stations, somebody would invariably ask: “How come your space station does not look like the one in the movie?” Launius would then explain: “Quite frankly, gravity is a problem if you want to do orbital research, because the one thing you cannot duplicate on Earth is a weightless environment.”

While the International Space Station doesn’t quite fit earlier visions of a base camp where armadas of spacecraft could assemble, Launius says the orbiting station has enabled us to study what happens to the human body in space. “You’ve got to learn that if you’re going to go anywhere else,” he says. “So, in that sense, it is still a base camp.”