In 1869, Atlantic Monthly writer E. Everett Hale imagined what a primitive space station might look like. It involved a lot of brick. Given NASA’s looming cuts, it may very well be all they can afford in the present!

Ha! NASA budget jokes! So topical, yet so sad. Anyway, there are a number of space station concepts from the past century, and while none saw the light of day, some of their features did, and could even help astronauts on missions to the Moon and Mars, if they ever happen.

There’s artificial gravity, for instance, which many scientists agree will be important if we’re to travel to Mars and beyond. It was first imagined as far back as 1929.

Then there’s the inflatable station, which was initially discussed decades ago. It’s made a resurgence as of late because it’d be cheap and easy to launch into orbit.

Lastly, there are designs that probably seemed pretty fantastical when artists conjured them up oh so many years ago, but in reality were kind of spot on. Like this one:

Then again, there’s this:

George Lucas, you got some splaining to do! [Scienceray via Neatorama]