A Village in Orbit: Inside NASA's Space Colony Concepts (Infographic)

Infographic: NASA's 1970s plans for building giant space colonies.

For awhile in the 1970s, NASA scientists studied the possibilities of building giant communities in space. (Image credit: by Karl Tate, Infographics Artist)

In the 1970s, with the Apollo moon landing program completed and the space shuttle program under development, space planners realized that huge space colonies were feasible. Reasons for building such habitats include the following: to create new lands for population expansion, to ensure the survival of humanity in case of global disaster and to create wealth by exploiting space resources.

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Karl's association with Space.com goes back to 2000, when he was hired to produce interactive Flash graphics. From 2010 to 2016, Karl worked as an infographics specialist across all editorial properties of Purch (formerly known as TechMediaNetwork). Before joining Space.com, Karl spent 11 years at the New York headquarters of The Associated Press, creating news graphics for use around the world in newspapers and on the web. He has a degree in graphic design from Louisiana State University and now works as a freelance graphic designer in New York City.