Strange Forgotten Space Station Concepts That Never Flew

The Brick Moon

The earliest concept for a space station is from an article called “The Brick Moon” by Edward Everett Hale. Published in 1868 in the Atlantic Monthly, Hale’s article described the construction of a 200-foot-diameter sphere made of bricks that is accidentally launched into space with people aboard.

Hale envisioned the brick moon as a possible navigational aide. It could have served as a fixed reference point above the prime meridian to help travelers calculate longitude, analogous to the North Star’s use in determining latitude.

While certainly impervious to being blown down by big bad space wolves, the brick moon was mostly fantasy. But Hale’s funny concept did foresee one major aspect of space station design: the astronomical price. In the story, the narrator calculates that the brick moon would require 12 million bricks and cost $250,000 (a tidy sum in those days).

Right Image: The Atlantic Monthly, 1896

Early Concepts

The Slovene rocket engineer Herman Potočnik proposed a set of three space stations in his 1928 The Problem of Space Travel -- the first book to provide detailed technical descriptions of space stations and spaceflight.

This three-unit space station, as seen from the window of a spaceship, includes a habitat, machine room, and observatory, all tied together with umbilical cords. It would have been placed 26,000 miles above the Earth, in a geosynchronous orbit above Berlin. The round shape of this design is supposed to have inspired the later rocket pioneer Werner Von Braun's penchant for ring-shaped space stations.

War in Space

Space has always been a place to show off military might. This concept, from a 1960 design by the U.S. Air Force, was intended to test the usefulness of reconnaissance in space.

Crews would be launched to this station in a Gemini B spacecraft, spend a month in orbit spying on enemy territories, and then return to Earth. Early designs called for the station to launch on Dec. 15, 1969, though this was pushed back to the fall of 1971.

The program was ultimately canceled when it was shown that unmanned reconnaissance satellites could achieve the same objectives for far less money.

Nuclear Power in Space

The atomic age comes to space in this design from the 1960s or '70s. Powered by a nuclear reactor as part of NASA’s Systems Nuclear Auxiliary Power (SNAP) program, this space station allowed for the servicing and launch of a spaceship in space.

To prevent any contaminating radiation from reaching the crew, the reactor was kept at the end of a long boom.

More than four stories tall, the concept is larger than anything that could have been launched from the surface of the Earth. So engineers envisioned this station being assembled high above the atmosphere. Two of its decks would be used as a laboratory in space while the others two would be used to living and operations.

Apollo Station

Sometimes simpler is better. Conceived during the Apollo era, the Large Orbiting Research Laboratory is based around three small compartments

Much in the same way that the later Space Shuttle would ferry astronauts and supplies between the ISS and the ground, this design uses the Saturn V rocket — which launched the Apollo missions — to bring a small crew to the station.

Spinning Design

Because of the deleterious effects of long-term microgravity on astronauts, NASA has long looked into rotating space station designs. Even a modest spin would provide a small amount of gravity, which could counteract the weakening of muscles and other effects of extended spaceflight.

This 1969 concept rotates on a central axis and would have been assembled in space from spent Apollo vehicle rocket stages. Most of these concepts were eventually abandoned at NASA in favor the zero-G station designs seen today.

Space Odyssey

Arguably the most iconic space station design is the double-wheeled wonder from Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Though more than a decade has passed since the fictional events in the movie, we have yet to see such a machine in space.

The concept was based on ideas from the rocket pioneer Werner Von Braun, who was a big fan of circular space stations. Towering at more than 900 feet in diameter, the station served as a layover point between Earth and the moon.

Kubrick’s station was a perfect combination of form and function, beautifully designed inside and out. Though government space agencies clearly used the platform, private companies were a major component of its operation. Pan Am ships brought scientists, passengers, and bureaucrats to the station, where they could stay in a space-based Hilton hotel.

Inflatable Station

Goodyear helped design this space station concept in 1961. After launch, it would have inflated like a giant rubber wheel, providing pressurized compartments for living and working in space.

Inflatable space stations, which can be compressed and folded before launch, are useful because size and weight are often the limiting factor in bringing anything to space. A 27-foot-diameter inflatable module called Transhab (.pdf) was proposed to fly on the International Space Station in the 1990s. Transhab’s foot-thick shell would have been made in part from woven Kevlar and could have protected astronauts against micrometeorites and the vacuum of space.

The module was never flown but a private company, Bigelow Aerospace, has taken up the design, launching two stations into orbit, Genesis I and II. The company currently has plans to launch a larger inflatable station, called BA 330, sometime in 2014 or 2015.

Power Roof

Looking like something a kid might put together with an Erector set, NASA put together this “roof” space station concept in 1984. The roof was covered in solar panels capable of generating about 120 kilowatts of power, while the triangular body housed five modules for living and research.

Space Station Freedom

Before the ISS, the U.S. considered a smaller international space station to be built in partnership with Japan, Canada, and nine European nations. First announced in President Ronald Reagan’s 1984 State of the Union, Space Station Freedom was meant to be an answer to the Soviet Mir space station.

Budget problems caused continuous delays for Freedom. The project was redesigned seven times between 1984 and 1993, each time shrinking in size and stature. In this last year, with Congress threatening to cancel the expensive project, President Bill Clinton announced that the Russian space agency would be brought in on the mission, creating the International Space Station.

This design, from 1993, fancifully sandwiches Freedom between the Earth, moon and Mars, suggesting the station as a stepping-stone between our planet and worlds beyond.