We lost a bit of the future we used to have only a couple of days ago, when Neil Armstrong died following heart surgery. The US space programme of the 1950s and 1960s has always fascinated me because of its optimism for the future. It gave us “Space Age” as a term of approval, and I for one mourn the Space Age we nearly had within our grasp. Here are some photographs to remind us of lost times…
space
British Aerospace HOTOL
NASA space ferry concept
Nuclear-powered ferry to the Moon (from Look and Learn)
Von Braun design for a lunar lander
Cabin detail from von Braun lunar lander
NASA Moon colony, with LRV in foreground
roads
Ford FX Atmos concept car, 1954
Bubble cars
Still the best-looking car ever, the Lamborghini Marzal
Lamborghini Marzal – so futuristic, you have to wear a spacesuit to drive it
Ferrari 512 S Speciale, by Pininfarina
Ferrari 512 S Speciale – could only be driven by people without heads
fashion
When you wake up in the future, this is what the nurses will look like (Pierre Cardin)
In the future, everyone will wear a bucket on their head because of climate change (Pierre Cardin)
What to wear when the sea levels rise (Nina Ricci)
Even on the Moon, they will need to keep their beer cold (Paco Raban, I think; and Frigidaire)
For when astronauts go hungry (Paco Raban again, I think)
Neil Armstrong can rest easy, knowing the Moon will be kept clean
It Doesn't Have To Be Right... 
August 27, 2012 at 10:57 am
Why do I get the feeling that the NASA graphic of the Moon colony was part of your inspiration for ‘Adrift on the Seas of Rains’? For a piece of commercial graphic work, it does give an astonishing sense of smallness and solitude…
August 27, 2012 at 5:55 pm
Should “Look and Learn” have really been called “Look and Dream”? I don’t know that I ever really learned much from it.