Boys Life Magazine, December 1966

Boys Life Magazine, December 1966 Cover

Bill Dunkerley (sans "Col.") writes about a Weightlessness experiment on pages 84-85. Since this article also has a moon suit in the illustration, I strongly suspect that the name is a pseudonym for Allyn Hazard. I did find a reference to a real Bill Dunkerley, an amateur radio guy in Australia who managed to successfully command a satellite in 1970 so I could be wrong and it's the same guy who may have written the article for Boys' Life, but that may just be a coincidence.

In any case, this Boys' Life from 1966 discusses weightlessness and how to simulate it on Earth. The illustration on page 85 is a cutaway of the Moon Suit. The instructions have you basically build your own to simulate the suit.

This article was sent to me by a retired researcher in Santa Fe working on a space archeology project in 2019, Ross Deforest Sackett. My heartfelt "Thank you!" goes out to him for this and other contributions.

Boys Life Magazine, December 1966 Pages 84-85

Transcript:

SOMEDAY you may travel into space. But you don't have to wait until the future to experience the feeling of weightlessness. Engineers have developed methods to simulate the real thing. One of these is so simple you can reproduce the feeling right at home.

Your experiment will be more fun if you choose a real destination in space - such as the moon, where U.S. astronauts will make their first landing. There is another good reason for choosing a definite location in space for your new experience. Each destination you reach will vary in gravitational pull when you step from your spacecraft.

Next step is to weigh yourself. Multiply that amount by 16 percent (moon's gravitational pull is approximately one-sixth that of Earth). For example, take a weight of 120 pounds and multiply it by sixteen hundredths (.16). The moon-weight is approximately 19 pounds.

Now, to construct your counterweight. Its weight should be the difference between what you would weigh on the moon (19 pounds) and your Earth weight of 120 pounds. Subtract the smaller figure from the larger. The number of pounds for the counterweight in this instance will be 101 pounds. (Yours will differ with your actual weight.)

Construction of your counterweight should be in an out-of-the-way place and next to a wall or building where you can put up overhead pulleys. The size or shape of your counterweight is not important; only the poundage. There is no need to ever have your counterweight more than a foot or two above the ground.

Block bricks are good material. But any material will do - a sack of sand, a can of dirt, even a log the right size. Most important is to tie your materials securely; use a bowline. The counterweight should have good balance and not slip apart.

Now that you have fastened a long rope to the end of your counterweight, extend the other end of that rope through your two pulleys. These pulleys should be about three feet above your head. Also, arrange to have the counterweight located six feet or so from where you will conduct your weightlessness experiment.

You will want to erect a platform somewhat higher than where you plan to stand, to allow your counterweight to rest on the ground while you fasten the loose end of the rope under your arms. Wrap the rope; don't tie it. In this way you can secure the loose end in one hand and be able to step to the ground and easily lift your counterweight.

After you have experienced weightlessness for the surface gravity of the moon, you can add realism to this experiment by constructing a space suit. Start with a barrel or some other hard-shell container which is three or four times as large around as your body. Reinforce the top. Then cut two holes in the bottom for your legs. Support the torso of the suit by ropes fastened to your belt.

This suit can be made to look quite real. Use heavy cloth or fiberboard for legs and arms. Cut up an old tire to simulate heavy seams. Rubber boots will make good "space shoes." A headpiece can be fashioned from plywood with a complete "see-around" faceplate. Rig antennas on top the headpiece, also a small light. Your space suit will be large enough to hold batteries for your headlight and ground light. You can store food and water inside. Wire accessories into a central control panel which should be just below chin level inside your suit. Moon maps go flat upside down under your headpiece. To read maps, look up.

Now that you have made a space suit, add to your fun by walking around in it. You can do this in one of two ways: Construct a treadmill (see drawing), or improvise a "Moonmobile" by clamping two bicycles about three feet apart. Rig your counterweight so you can move it with you between the bicycles. Make a platform across the bikes to carry an assortment of weights. With an assortment of weights, several boys can adjust to their own counterweight needs. Or, you can make your own adjustments of the counterweight for visits to different places in the solar system.

To obtain this feeling of the difference in weightlessness on each of the planets, refigure (sic) your counterweight total in accordance with the table of figures. First, select a new destination to one of the planets. Then multiply your earth weight by the surface gravity percentage shown for that planet. By this method you will arrive at your new counterweight figure. Don't forget to include your moonsuit weight in the final calculations.

With an assortment of weights to change your counterweight you can interest your friends in weightlessness experiments. Choose a buddy. Astronauts always work in pairs. It is safer and more fun with two boys to each Moonmobile. With two moonsuits and two Moonmobiles a Scout troop can run a great variety of races, relays and games.

All images, captions and content are Copyright © 1997-2024 John Eaton unless otherwise stated. If there are any comments or objections, please contact John Eaton, by clicking here.

Boys Life Magazine, October 1964 "Journey Across the Moon" and "Space Clothing" by Col. Bill Dunkerley

Boys Life Magazine, October 1964 Cover

Major Matt Mason list member (before everyone moved into the Major Matt Mason Facebook group), Jim Rhodes sent me this article with the accompanying pics many years ago. I don't believe Boys Life is still in print, but just in case, all images and text are copyright Boys Life Magazine and used without permission. If anyone out there has a legal problem with me reprinting the material here, please let me know and I'll remove it immediately. Click on the image above for a full- size diagrammatic rendering of the suit (from the article). Note that I've reformatted the text to better suit web publishing from my original Wildtoys.com post, removing many hyphenated words.

After seeing a follow-up article by "Bill Dunkerley" I strongly suspect that the author is a pseudonym of Allyn Hazard himself.

Boys Life Magazine, October 1964 Page 12

JOURNEY ACROSS THE MOON
By Col. BILL DUNKERLEY

AFTER THE first U.S astronauts reach the moon and return, others soon will follow. One exploration now being planned will consist of four spaceships and 12 astronauts. Four spacemen will ride in each of three lunar-expedition passenger carriers. The fourth craft will be for cargo, including two "moonmobiles" for the 500-mile surface journey from the moon sea, Mare Imbrium, to the Crater Aristarchus. Such a journey has been selected because it will take the astronauts into high and low terrain.

Boys Life Magazine, October 1964 Image

When they land, the crew will change into "moonsuits," an air-lock door will open in each spacecraft and cable hoists will lower the astronauts to the moon-dust surface. It will be night, the temperature 247 degrees Fahrenheit below zero. Darkness and extreme cold will be safer than the deadly radiation of solar flare activity during the moon's long 214-degree day.

Partial weightlessness and the cold silence will give the astronauts an eerie feeling as they move about like turtles, operating their moonsuits from an inside control panel in front of their chest, switching on suit lights that focus where they walk. As an earth day passes, the crew will assemble two moon-mobiles, skeletonlike vehicles with oversize metal-tired "bicycle" wheels. They will maintain their direction without a compass, for there is no significant magnetic field on the moon.

Four of the 12 astronauts will make the journey to Aristarchus to test equipment, take photographs, collect geological samples and carry on scientific studies. Every step, every heartbeat, every breath of the four-man exploring team will be reported back to earth.

Besides carrying two astronauts the moonmobile will carry power and oxygen reserves, food supplies, test equipment and moon sample containers. Each astronaut will be connected to the moonmobile by a 20-foot umbilical tube, without which he could not survive for more than a few minutes.

The journey starts off at five miles an hour from the bottom of Mare Imbrium. On one moonmobile rides the geologist for the expedition and one of the two medical-human-factors specialists. On the other vehicle is the physicist and the specialist who handles power-communications and life-support functions. Back at moonbase the eight other astronauts are the life sciences doctor, the astronomer and six support-mission specialists.

The explorers reach Yellow Mountain, a landmark long observed from earth and believed to be towering sulfur. This explanation seems plausible in view of terrestrial like moonscape with its pumice and volcanic ash. Siliceous igneous rock-quartz that has formed by solidification of molten matter below the moon's crust-may have pegmatite veins containing compounds of the lighter elements. Oxygen, though difficult to extract, might be obtained in quantity here. Water and other fluids from these lunar rocks will someday be used by future lunar expeditions to build underground cities.

Moonsuits are made to tilt back as beds, but no one wants to sleep - too much excitement, too much to see and do. Through the eyes of this small group the dream of ages has come true- man is walking across the face of the moon.

THE END

Second Article- 

Boys Life Magazine, October 1964 Page 42

SPACE CLOTHING
By Col. BILL DUNKERLEY

SPACE SUITS of the future will be more like shelters than clothing. Short on style, but long on reliability, they'll contain their own life-support Systems. Once outside the spacecraft they'll be attached to ground-powered vehicles that will carry the astronaut and his supplies. During the 'Ice Age cavemen wrapped skins about them to keep from freezing to death. Today's survival manuals of the Army and other services stress the importance of clothing to maintain correct body temperature, protect against sun, prevent skin damage and the bite of poisonous insects.

Boys Life Magazine, October 1964 Artist Rendering

In outer space men's clothing will become much more important to him. It will protect him against added dangers of cosmic and solar radiation, extremes of heat and cold (lunar temperatures range more than 450 degrees Fahrenheit) vacuum conditions and particles streaking through space without atmosphere to burn them Space suits of the future will be no ordinary flying suits. They'll be developed from astronaut clothing used in today's Mercury capsules. The torso suit is a closely fitted coverall with inner gas-retention ply of neoprene and an outer heat- reflective, aluminized nylon fabric; a helmet of resinous, impregnated fiber glass hard-shell with visor sealing and communication system; gloves with miniature finger lights; boots of aluminized, nylon fabric with tennis-shoe-type soles; and a cotton undergarment with long sleeves and legs.

The space suit has become a compact version of the spacecraft cabin. Into it has been built a similar environment control system. Its basis is an air conditioner which is called a heat exchanger. Hot air, carbon dioxide and body odor leave the suit by a ventilation outlet at the back of the helmet, drawn into the heat exchanger by a water-cooled fan, purified and sent back by a hose from the oxygen tank to the suit waist. Fresh oxygen is forced into the suit's distribution ducts and carried to the limbs where it flows freely back over the body for cooling and pressurization.

Several kinds of clothing will be worn during a space journey. During flight in a spacecraft, such as the Apollo on its way to the moon, astronauts will travel in a shirtsleeve environment, the same as the crews of the B-70. Astronauts will probably take turns wearing a space suit that will permit them to make outside repairs on the ship. When the crew reaches the moon they'll wear a space suit of more advanced design.

The Lunar Exploration Suit, Model MK 1 has been developed by Space General Corporation for travel across the surface of the moon. It resembles a shelter because it must carry its own life-support system wherever it goes. The basic suit assembly weighs 60 pounds on earth, 10 pounds on the moon. It will carry a two-week food supply weighing 30 pounds; a two-hour oxygen supply, 24 pounds; battery, 24 pounds; communication equipment, 12 pounds; reading and miscellaneous material, 12 pounds. With an 180-pound astronaut, this suit will total 342 earth-pounds and 57 moon-pounds.

Looking at this enormous suit from top to bottom, you see first a wide-domed headpiece with an identification light centered on top, V- shaped antennae, a built-in helmet camera and see-around faceplate that drops almost straight down to the shoulders to give the astronaut 360- degree vision. At collar height there is a bumper to protect the "windshield" and for another astronaut to grab in helping his buddy. At thigh level ground lights can be turned on. Boots are double-soled and vacuum-insulated.

The astronaut will maneuver the suit much like a small tank. As he walks, he will use his arms inside to help the shoulder harness support the suit. He will operate dials and knobs on the control panel below the windshield for his life- support functions, to control the suit's cooking facilities, tune his radio and operate electronic equipment. From his "dashboard" inside the suit, he will also be able to manipulate a ground- powered vehicle which will support him with additional oxygen and supplies during exploration. This "Moonmobile" is technically called the Lunar Exploration Vehicle (2 man) MK I. It has a 20-foot umbilical which delivers oxygen and power to the space suit. The astronaut may walk with the vehicle, or he may choose to ride. If he rides, he hooks himself onto one end of the Moonmobile with support trunnions located on each side of his space suit. A mechanism on the vehicle will lift him off the ground and carry him in an upright position at five miles an hour. Also, when supported by the vehicle, the astronaut can easily shift his weight much the same as in a lean-back chair. In this way he can tilt the suit horizontally for sleeping. It is padded down the back so as to be reasonably comfort- able under reduced lunar gravity. The multi-purpose support trunnions not only provide a means of support aboard the Moonmobile, but they can serve as a point of attachment for "flying belts." They can also be used to hoist this "detachable man-propelled cabin of a Moon- mobile" into the spaceship.

There are advantages to integrating the hard-shell space suit into the configuration of a vehicle such as a Moonmobile. If the astronaut must move away from his supply vehicle, the umbilical can be disconnected. Then the suit's self-contained oxygen and power supply will permit it to operate independently until the oxygen is used. In exploration missions this is important. When each crewman is contained within his own suit. the failure of one will not affect the others, In this way space clothing will provide each astronaut a better chance for survival.

THE END

All images, captions and content are Copyright © 1997-2023 John Eaton unless otherwise stated. If there are any comments or objections, please contact John Eaton, by clicking here.