In the 1960s and 1970s, NASA and independent physicists and futurists explored the idea of permanent settlement in space. Not stations with 6 or 7 people for a few months at a time, but thousands, millions of people in independent habitats in the LaGrange L5 point. These artworks show some concepts of what that future might've looked like - and still might look like.

The habitats pictured here are all possible with 1970 technology. All we need is the will to achieve them. Have a vision of the future that past geniuses thought we might have, as a reminder that we can still have it, if we want it.

All artwork is public domain, created for the NASA Ames Research Center, by Don Davis and Rick Guidice.