Space General Corporation Lunar Exploration Suit, Model MK 1: 1961

Showing posts with label 1961. Show all posts

Thursday, January 9, 2025

The Toledo Blade December 30, 1961 Page 3 "Engineers Design 'Moonmobile' For Lunar Travel"

The Toledo Blade December 30, 1961 Page 3

Short article with image of Hazard's Moonmobile - there are two Moon Suits - one in the front driving the Moonmobile and the other in a reclining position to the rear.

Transcript:

Engineers Design 'Moonmobile' For Lunar Travel

No Rubber Tires Allowed Due To Low Temperatures

DENVER, Dec 30 - Space engineers came up today with a design for a "moonmobile"- featuring "wagon-type steering." "space-suit integration," and "wishbone actuators," if you please.

Its two-man crew would sport real weirdies in the space-suit line. These would be attachable to the vehicle itself and would have an over-sized torso section. The latter would be designed, among other things, to enable the spacemen to scratch themselves in comfort as they traveled over - nay, "lunagated" - the moon's surface at 5 to 10 miles an hour.

The eight-foot long, five-foot wide lunar buggy would cruise on five-foot-diameter, fairly broad-rimmed wheels featuring bicycle-size spokes.

Rubber Would Crack

The wheels might have cleats but no rubber tires because rubber would crack in the 250-below-zero lunar nighttime which lasts more than 300 hours.

The vehicle would look like a cross between a small boy's homemade gig and a railroad handcar. The entire front axle would pivot in a vertical axis, just like a wagon.

Two engineers of Space General Corp., Glendale, Calif., produced preliminary blueprints in a report to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

They also offered a design for a larger, three-man vehicle - an enclosed-cabin type job in which the moon explorers would travel in "shirt sleeve comfort without space suits while they operated bulldozer and other attachments by remote control.

Possible Lunar Landings

Dr J. E. Froehlich and Allyn B Hazard said the Government should begin soon to finance development of actual models - to be ready for possible lunar landings "well before the end of the 1960's."

But they offered no estimates of prices of new models - nor of resale value at used car lots on the moon.

Both types of "moonmobiles" would use chemical fuels in an electrical generating system feeding motors attached to each of the four wheels.

The smaller vehicle - presumably the lunar version of the compact car - would weigh 2,400 earth pounds (F.O B. Cape Canaveral) - but would weigh only 400 pounds on the low-gravity moon.

It would be designed essentially for 10-day overland exploratory missions of up to 1,000 miles.

One man would ride forward, the other in the rear. Usually, they'd ride in a standing position, with their hardshell space suits attached to special rigs shaped like a wishbone. They also could push a button on their "wishbone actuators" and be automatically set on the ground.

Like Cement Mixer

To take a nap while under way, each spaceman could cause his actuator to suspend him horizontally making him look like a cement mixer in action. The space suits would each weigh 342 earth pounds but only 57 moon pounds.

While meandering away from their moon buggy, the space-men could get life-supporting oxygen and also electrical power for their built-in radios and other gadgets through 20-font "umbilical" cables linked with the moonmobile. But they could also disconnect the cable, and take longer jaunts of several hours duration, thanks to a small oxygen and power-supplying unit contained in the space suit itself.

The suit's oversized torso would allow the man to keep his hands inside most of the time - while he operated the moonmobile from a control panel built into the suit. He could also heat food inside and "perform all normal bodily functions such as eating, sleeping. scratching and elimination."

The suit has a picture window. but no windshield wiper is needed for it - nor for the moonmobile because there's no fog, wind or rain on the moon.

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The Boston Globe September 2, 1961 TV Listing for "Where do we go from here?"

I've yet to source a video copy of "Where do we go from here?" - as listed in the TV Schedule for September 2, 1961 in the Boston Globe. It sounds like a science program, probably on a local PBS station with an emphasis on space exploration. I've seen similar schedules for the same program in other papers.

Transcript:

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Scientists Dr. Robert P. Geckler, Jack H. Irving, Allyn B. Hazard, discuss the feasibility of moon shots and interplanetary space exploration: Ted Myers, host: 6 (7). (ed. "7" indicates the station, WNAC in this case)

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.

Wednesday, January 8, 2025

Spokane Daily Chronicle February 17, 1961 Front Page "Fine for Moonlight" (AP)

Spokane Daily Chronicle February 17, 1961 Front Page

The Moon Suit made it to the front page of the Spokane Daily Chronicle on February 17, 1961 as an image (worn by someone other than Allyn Hazard) and short blurb "Fine for Moonlight."

Transcript:

Fine for Moonlight

Dr. John Lyman of the University of California's biotechnology lab models the latest thing in suits for a moon explorer. The designer, Allyn B. Hazard, figures an astronaut wearing it could explore the moon's surface for days without returning to his space ship. A hose attached to the front would bring in heat, air and electricity for lights and instruments. Lyman holds a yardstick which could be used for survey work. UCLA scientists will test the suit - but not on the moon. (AP wirephoto.)

The Spokesman-Review, February 17, 1961 Page 6 "Latest Moon Suit Thing to Behold!" (AP)

The Spokesman-Review, February 17, 1961 Page 6

Article describing the Moon Suit's appearance at UCLA in the Spokane, Washington's The Spokesman-Review, February 17, 1961.

Transcript:

Latest Moon Suit Thing to Behold!

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 16. (AP) - The newest thing in moon suits is an awesome monster 71/2 feet tall in which an astronaut can explore the lunar surface for days at a time without having to return to base.

When perfected the weird-looking suit should enable the explorer to:

Feed himself from cans carried inside its bulbous, 30-inch-diameter aluminum torso.
Drive his "moon jeep" with a remote control panel, also built inside the torso.
Leave the jeep, and walk about surveying and collecting rock samples.
Catch naps in a special cradle projecting from the front of the moonmobile.

"Space suit, lunar exploration, MKI" was modeled yesterday by Dr. John Lyman, head of the biotechnology laboratory of the University of California at Les Angeles.

Lyman and a group of students next month will begin working the bugs out of the suit, loaned to UCLA for this purpose by designer Allyn B. Hazard, who recently disclosed plans for the moon jeep that goes with it.

Most currently planned space suits are designed to keep a man alive for only a few hours at best. Then he has to return to his ship or his base. The new moon suit would give an explorer much greater freedom.

It will have lights inside and out, and a glass porthole at the bottom of the torso so the explorer can see the ground at his feet.

Lyman is even studying how to dispose of body wastes, a real problem when the explorer plans to stay in the suit for days at a time.

With the suit on, Lyman, a husky six-footer, had an earth weight of some 340 pounds. But that shouldn't be a factor on the moon. There, where gravity is only one sixth that of the earth, he would weigh a mere 57 pounds.

Boston Globe December 24, 1961 Page 37 "500-Mile Walk on the Moon Already Mapped Out" by Arthur A. Riley

Boston Globe December 24, 1961 Page 37

This article appeared in The Boston Globe Science in Industry section on December 24, 1961. It features a proposal by Allyn B. Hazard for the technical feasibility of putting a 12-man exploration team there by the end of the decade. It also includes an image of the Moon Suit.

Transcript:

500-Mile Walk on the Moon Already Mapped Out

By ARTHUR A. RILEY

Although this nation has a long-range goal of placing a man on the moon within the next 10 years, a veteran California rocket engineer claims that it is technically feasible to put a 12-man exploration team on that planet before the end of this decade.

* * *

Allyn B. Hazard of the engineering staff of Space-General Corp., affiliated with Aerojet-General Corp., recently outlined his plan for a 12-man lunar surface exploration mission in a technical paper delivered in Los Angeles.

An expedition of this kind would require four rocket vehicles weighing from six to eight million pounds to transport the explorers to a lunar landing. Three of the vehicles would be round-trip passenger carriers; the fourth would be a non-return cargo craft which would deposit approximately 15 tons of supplies on the moon.

According to the rocket engineer's plan, the expedition would be divided into two groups - a four-man mission and eight-man support team.

* * *

However, engineer Hazard has come up with a definitely planned mission to be carried out on the lunar surface.

Long an observer and student of the moon, the engineer said: "A major effort of this expedition could be a 500-mile overland journey - such as from a landing site in Mare Imbrium near the Crater Gruithuisen to the Crater Aristarchus and back."

Plans call for the trip to be made in two moonmobiles, each carrying two men. The other members of the expedition would remain at the landing site, living in space ships, conducting experiments and establishing a permanent base of operations.

The journey from Gruithuisen to Aristarchus and return was selected because the intervening area is mainly a flat plain and devoid of large craters and pock-marked surface areas. Moonmobiles, with somewhat the appearance of farm tractors, have been designed by Hazard. They would travel at speeds up to five miles per hour over the lunar terrain.

The engineer puts an estimated time of 10 days or less for the round trip journey. He expressed the opinion that the journey should be taken during the 330-hour lunar night wherein the surface temperatures on the moon run at about minus 250 degrees Farenheit (sic) thereby avoiding the deadly radiation emitted by the sun during daytime solar flare activity.

* * *

Hazard already has designed the space suits for the men on the moonmobiles. It is a marked departure from the type now worn by astronauts and they may be worn for a full two weeks period.

The moon explorers making this penetration into the unknown will live like turtles in these hard shell space suits.

Discussing the suit in detail, Hazard said: "By making the body section oversize, it is possible for the man to perform all normal bodily functions such as eating, sleeping, and elimination while occupying the space suit."

He further pointed out that equipment within the body shell will be provided for heating food, communications and controlling the moonmobile. A full scale model has been built and is now undergoing engineering tests.

Hazard also suggested that giant vacuum chambers be built on earth to test equipment and train the men for lunar surface operations. "In the case of the 500-mile lunar journey training, exercises could be conducted in these space simulators," he said. "The men attired in space suits, would unload their moonmobiles from the cargo carrier, perform brief equipment checkouts and start off on a 500-mile circuit around 2500 feet of vacuum the tunnels."

* * *

Should a vehicle break down en route, the men would have to fix it or walk back to the landing site. "Not until the adequacy of the equipment and operator training has been demonstrated in these vacuum chambers, the engineer concluded, "would it seem practical to send the expedition to the moon."

Despite the fact that space suits and life support systems appear practical for such an expedition, Hazard the rocket engineer did not make mention of the hazards en route, such as radiation, meteor contact, whether the moonmobiles would meet the conditions encountered on the moon's crust, or the colossal power to meet the lift-off requirements of the four rocket vehicles weighing from 6 to 8 million pounds.

However, the time is not far distant when samples of the moon's surface will be obtained, that metals to withstand friction and meteor contact will be developed, and, of course, rocket thrust is constantly being increased. That 250,000-mile distance between the earth and the moon will be one day traversed by man.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Post-Standard Sunday (Syracuse, NY) August 6, 1961 "A Suit for the First Man on the Moon"

Post-Standard Sunday (Syracuse, NY) August 6, 1961 "A Suit for the First Man on the Moon" Pages 10-11

This image popped up during a random search I made in 2009 - it's probably from a newspaper archive site originally. From the Post-Standard Sunday (Syracuse, NY) August 6, 1961 Pages 10-11 "A Suit for the First Man on the Moon"

Transcript below:

A suit for the first man on the moon

"You're going to land on the moon. You need a suit that will protect you against all the dangers you'll run into. You can start by figuring out what they are."

That's the assignment Professor John Lyman handed his class in Experimental Engineering at U.C.LA. Along with it he gave them a rough model of a moon man's suit designed by California engineer Allyn B. Hazard. The class studied it, wore it, and tried to make it into a practical safeguard for our first moon man. They pin-pointed six major problems the suit must solve:

Breathing: No air on the moon, so the suit must pack oxygen for at least 10 days.
Hot-cold: The moon switches from a boiling 215 degrees F. in the daytime to 250 below at night. Suit must be power-heated and cooled, heavily insulated.
Radiation: A phenomenon called "solar flair" intermittently showers the moon with very intense radiation. Suit must completely shield wearer.
Vacuum effect: Suit must prevent fatal loss of moisture due to moon's near-vacuum atmosphere.
Mobility: Moon's surface is thought to be covered with dust that may be 20 feet thick in places. Also, the atmospheric pressure inside the suit and absence of pressure outside will cause moon man's arms to fly up like Jimmy Durante's and stick there.
Chow: Moon man must carry rations inside suit.

You can see why the suit doesn't exactly have Ivy League cut. Our scientists have dubbed President Kennedy's proposed $40 billion man-to-the-moon project "Apollo." Apollo should sue!

--Joseph Gies