Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Funny, that line gives me chills. n/t

Speaking of things that give you chills

I thought of your dream post when I saw an article about Grumman's "Moon Suit" from 1962. Note the wraparound window, which would let you check whether an enemy fighter plane (or a tiger or a Martian) is stalking you. That was one primal dream, man.

http://www.laboiteverte.fr/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/gjl.jpg


But I can't stop thinking about that suit for more reasons than your dream. It seems like a very practical design for a "surface excursion module" (not so much for microgravity, where it'd be more of a nightmare). It would have been roomy, and you could draw in your arms to scratch an itch or eat a sandwich, or to save your arm if the suit arm gets punctured. Notice the window in the bottom of the can--you'd have had better visibility of what's at your feet than any real Apollo surface suit. And the whole hard shell concept seems very practical when your job is to walk around the landscape performing scientific examinations of stuff. The mockup shows the astronaut carrying around a workstation attached to the front of the can.

To me, that was a promising design, but when I went searching for more pictures of it, I picked up from the context that it was ridiculed at the time for the way it looked. Not for being a good or bad spacesuit, but just because it looks dorky. I guess the ideal aesthetic for a heroic astronaut is a form-fitting sci-fi-ish space number, not some clunky tin can. Something more like NASA's new Buzz Lighyear costume, the I-kid-you-not Z2:
http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/ccaf393b7d63e3aebf899bccf39509b23623bbc7/c=0-22-720-562&r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/USATODAY/GenericImages/2014/04/15//1397583646000-tech-rockscropped.jpg


I dunno. I think I might be too embarrassed to wear that thing, even if they offered me a trip to Mars.

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