NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) took ultra-sharp pictures that spark off some tantalizing thoughts for the Moon bases we might build one day. But when you look seriously at recent portrayals of lunar outposts, the idea doesn't seem to have advanced much in half a century, if at all.
Back in the days of the British Eagle comic, Frank Hampson, the hugely-talented artist who created and drew the sci-fi strip Dan Dare was drawing a future world many of us would like to see today. Hampson’s vision of a Moon base (top picture) included all the classic features that have been reinvented since - a lunar jeep, bubble domes, monorail transit system and sealed double-airlock doors. In the distance you can even spot a hydroponics dome for producing fresh fruit and vegetables. And the prescient Frank Hampson drew all this in - wait for it - 1958!
The concepts produced since (lower pictures) may be more realistic, at least in the spacesuit designs, but in the main, they have hardly run ahead with the visionary ball. Perhaps the confirmation of Helium 3 in commercial quantities would be a key to moving ahead with Moon colonization - in times to come, it may prove a valuable fuel for fusion power plants.
Meantime, we’ll just have to marvel at Frank Hampson’s artwork.
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