The Norwalk (CT) Hour March 6, 1961 Page Four "Fashions in Moon Suits"

Somewhat comical description of the Moon Suit as a "small, fat lighthouse with legs - his head in place of the lamp."

Transcript:

FASHIONS IN MOON SUITS

In a recent story from Cape Canaveral, a science writer mentions 1970 as the year when a man may be put on the moon.

The same day's grist of news brought from Los Angeles the description of a "moon suit 7 1/2 feet tall" in which an astronaut can explore the lunar surface for days without having to return to base. This newest model for the purpose is said to be a great improvement over old-fashioned moon suits. Presumably all of them are obsolete almost as soon as designed - long before a man is ready to wear one in earnest.

In this one, now being worked over by the University of California, designer Allyn B. Hazard says a man can carry on his daily life and walk around "for days." The fellow wears what looks (in the picture) like a small, fat lighthouse with legs-his head in place of the lamp.

Walking in such a rig being awkward enough; he never strays far from his "moon-jeep," also designed by Hazard.

There's this about the people who are at work on this sort of thing for surface exploration of the moon or for orbiting a man in space around earth or some other planet like Venus: They are not much like the old-fashioned "inventor" out in the barn rigging up something out of his own head.

Far from it! The men to watch are the hundreds of highly-trained scientists in such expensively-equipped spots as the Biotechnology Laboratory of the University of California.

Like the physicists and the engineers working on rockets and missiles, the moonsuit tailors and other space-man experts have a large and growing mass of data at their disposal. Their labors are financed not only by universities but by foundations and the U. S. government.

The likelihood is that when a man does finally walk on the moon he will be in a suit and using vehicles that many a devoted groundling has had a part in developing. At the bottom of this futuristic work there is something pretty solid and time-tested. That's the scientific method of research.

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