The mid-20th century was a time of rapid change, particularly in terms of space exploration. In the United States, scientists were working hard to put a man in space. By the time Apollo 11 reached the moon in 1969, the Soviet Union had already launched a satellite into space (beating the US by one year, 1957 vs. 1958) and had been the first power to place a man-made object on the surface of the moon (1959).The Soviet Union didn’t just imagine a worker’s utopia on Earth—they also hoped their great communist experiment would eventually reach other worlds, too. Here are some incredible works of art and conceptual design that put Communism—as envisioned by the Soviet Union—in space.But first, let's get into the mid-century spirit with this snippet of footage from 1960's Czechoslovakia:[embed]https://youtu.be/JGgbANVQmTs[/embed]Now, onward and upward![caption id="" align="alignnone" width="636"]
Bases on outer planets imagined by Andrei Sokolov, mid-1960s[/caption][caption id="" align="alignnone" width="636"]
Bases on outer planets imagined by Andrei Sokolov, mid-1960s[/caption][caption id="" align="alignnone" width="636"]
From "Station Moon," a Soviet children’s book by Pavel Klushantsev, 1965 and 1974[/caption][caption id="" align="alignnone" width="636"]
From "Station Moon," a Soviet children’s book by Pavel Klushantsev, 1965 and 1974[/caption][caption id="" align="alignnone" width="636"]
From "Station Moon," a Soviet children’s book by Pavel Klushantsev, 1965 and 1974[/caption][caption id="" align="alignnone" width="636"]
From "Soviet Cities on the Moon?" in Science Digest, February 1958[/caption]
