1970's Space Life Depicted By NASA

Still pumping with the adrenaline of a successful moon landing in the 1970s, America's sights escaped the confines of planet Earth and turned towards the vacuum of outer space. A number of artistic renderings were made at NASA's Ames Research Center, depicting a futuristic space colony that came complete with rivers, mountains, vegetation, and — by the looks of it — complete peace. 

Behold the sprawling majestic landscape of the future! Don't step outside or your eyes will pop right out of your skull. 

You can clearly see that the tennis-playing WASPs from America have successfully made it onto the space station. 

Ahh... the glorious rolling hills of Elysium. It's the perfect scene with an even more perfect view of the stars in the background. It's almost exactly like San Francisco, except there's a chance you will explode from the inside out. 

Of course, there would be an interplanetary jungle gym that would be constantly worked on by the guys from Daft Punk. 

Here's a cutaway view of the "agricultural modules." Not pictured: elated tennis playing astronauts. 

Another view of the exterior. 

The model of the colony looks pretty ordinary on the outside — who could imagine a community of suburbanites are thriving on the inside. 

It's as if the entire Midwest was transplanted into a pressurized metallic vein. 

Obviously, this utopian space station never came to fruition, but the renderings still evoke a sense of wonder and hope... like everything we always dreamed about as kids brought to life. It's just all so surreal — also very expensive looking.

Jeremy Glass is the Vice editor for Supercompressor and feels his crippling fear of heights would hinder his success as an astronaut.