Space General Corporation Lunar Exploration Suit, Model MK 1

Saturday, January 4, 2025

Exploring God's World by James H. Jauncey

This interesting religious book "Exploring God's World" by James H. Jauncey (1965) uses space imagery, including an illustration of a couple of Moon Suited astronauts exploring the moon, as the first illustration of the "When God Made Outer Space" section.

Exploring God's World by James H. Jauncey

I've only found a single reference to the actual book on the Amazon UK site. You can tell the illustration is from early JPL photography (also it predates Major Matt Mason by a couple of years).

Thursday, January 2, 2025

Allyn B. Hazard

Allyn B. Hazard (1928-1979)

The inventor of the Moon Suit and founder/CEO of the Space General Corporation, was engineer Allyn Burson "Hap" Hazard. I did some cursory research on Hazard - seems he had an interesting career (the image above was copied from a Smithsonian image archive for JPL and used without permission). Allyn was born in Winnebago, IL on August 22 1924 and passed away in Los Angeles during August 1979, at age 54 or 55 (the birth year listed in SSDI is 1924 so presumably the JPL image has the wrong birth year). He was buried in Guaje Pines Cemetery, Los Alamos, New Mexico, United States.

Allyn Hazard was in the Navy towards the end of World War 2 but he was better known as a Navy space flight coordinator working at JPL during the planning and execution of the Ranger program. Earlier, in 1951 in a somewhat unexpected incident he accidentally captured a failing USAF B36 on film, which made it first into various news reports and later into Life Magazine as a pictorial. In 1952 he experimented with a new design for a hydrofoil boat and was awarded a patent for it (below). It was his post-JPL design for an Integrated Moonmobile-Spacesuit (AKA Moon Suit) Concept that brought him wide acclaim, including the cover of Life Magazine, which we famously know.

"HAP HAZARD, who shot the crash, is an engineer, inventor and a dianetics auditor.

Life Magazine May 21, 1951 "Camera Records Big B-36 Crash"

Life Magazine ran a piece with still shots of the B-36 that Hazard shot on his home movie camera.

Freak boat that flies on stilts, 1952

Freak boat that flies on stilts, 26 March 1952. Allyn B Hazard -- 27 years (in boat) 1317 1/2 South Gladys Street, San Gabriel.;Caption slip reads: 'Photographer: Emery. Date: 1952-03-26. Reporter: Phister. Assignment: Freak boat that flies on stilts. 16 or 17: Closeup of Allyn B 'Hap' Hazard, 27 years, of 1317 1/2 South Gladys St., San Gabriel, mechanical engineer, developer operator & owner of 'boat that flies'---shown after testing boat at Long Beach Marine Stadium. 38-39, 42-43, 72-73, 96-97, 01-02, 24-25, 44-45, 48-49, 32-33: Action shots of Hazard putting his experimental boat through high-speed paces, when boat rises about two feet over water and travels on metal vanes extending into water. Boat 'flies on stilts'. Closeups of one of the vanes and its control, shown by Hazard'.. (Photo by Los Angeles Examiner/USC Libraries/Corbis via Getty Images)

Hazard's Patent on "Hydrofoil Boat"

An Integrated Moonmobile-Spacesuit Concept 610086 (1961.01.01)

Citation: Hazard, A., "An Integrated Moonmobile-Spacesuit Concept," SAE Technical Paper 610086, 1961

Valley Times Collection from the Los Angeles Public Library "Moon suit" 1961

Pictured is engineer Allyn B. Hazard in a moon suit he designed. Hazard is a senior development engineer in the Missile Engineering Section of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The suit was on loan to a UCLA biology laboratory class which studied its effectiveness. It was one of the first spacesuits ever designed. Photograph dated February 16, 1961.

Valley Times Collection from the Lost Angeles Public Library "New trends at home show" 1964

Valley Times Collection from the Los Angeles Public Library "New trends at home show" 1964

Photograph caption dated June 12, 1965 reads "Home show queen Janice Johnson is helped out of a model of the Apollo spacecraft by Hap Hazard, space engineer, wearing the very latest design in suits for moon crawling. Cutaway model of Apollo is now on exhibit in Sports Arena, along with other aerospace features, 12:30 to 11 p.m. daily through June 20."

Link 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.

NASA SP-4205 "CHARIOTS OF APOLLO - A History of Manned Lunar Space Craft"

NASA SP-4205 "CHARIOTS OF APOLLO - A History of Manned Lunar Space Craft" 1979 Page 64

This NASA publication references a paper done by Hazard published in 1959.

"Across the country from Huntsville, another NASA center had different ideas about the best way to put man on the moon. Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, suggested a link-up of vehicles on the moon itself. A number of unmanned payloads-a vehicle designed to return to earth and one or more tankers-would land on the lunar surface at a preselected site. Using automatic devices, the return vehicle could then be refueled and checked out by ground control before the crew left the earth.

After the manned spacecraft arrived on the moon, the crew would transfer to the fully fueled return vehicle for the trip home. One of the earliest proposals for this approach was put together by Allyn B. Hazard, a senior development engineer at the laboratory. His 1959 scheme laid the ground work for JPL's campaign for lunar-surface rendezvous during the Apollo mode deliberations.(7)"

(7). [Nicholas E. Golovin], draft report of DoD-NASA Large Launch Vehicle Planning Group (LLVPG), 1 [November 1961 ], pp. 6B-39 through 6B-42; Allyn B. Hazard, "A Plan for Manned Lunar and Planetary Exploration," November 1959.

From the Earth to the Moon 1998 TV Mini-Series Episode 5: Spider

Allyn B. Hazard is played by actor David Brisbin

"Part five of this twelve-part docudrama series about the development of the U.S. space program as the country prepares to send men to the moon. Part five, entitled "Spider," examines the work of the engineers who built the lunar capsule. When Tom Dolan proposes the idea of a lunar orbit rendezvous between a command module and lunar module, John Houbolt of NASA approves the option as sensible and safe. With Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation in Bethpage, New York, approved to construct the lunar module, Tom Kelly and his team of engineers struggle to figure out how to lighten the heavy weight of the craft. They eliminate standard items in most spacecrafts, like seats, thermal shields, and windows. When construction begins, Kelly grasps the huge task ahead, considering all the parts must be handmade and repeatedly tested. But as the time for the scheduled lift-off nears, Kelly realizes the module will not be ready, so the engineers labor harder then ever to meet the tight deadline. Finally, the module is ready and astronauts Jim McDivitt, Dave Scott, and Rusty Schweikart wait anxiously for the launch. After a successful launch, the module separates from the command craft and begins its journey around the moon. But as McDivitt and Schweikart prepare to partake in a historic space walk, Schweikart gets sick and the mission gets scrapped. As McDivitt and Schweikart prepare to shut down the module and reconnect with the command craft, McDivitt decides that Schweikart is feeling better and he orders the first two-man spacewalk. Back at mission control, Kelly nervously awaits word of whether the lunar module and command craft have reconnected."

Photos I grabbed of Allyn B. Hazard from various online sources:

Most of the rocky sequences with Hazard in the #3 painted suit are from the Mojave Desert, I believe. The photos of him donning the #8 suit (probably the same prototype with an updated number) seem to be from later publicity appearances.

Monday, September 4, 2023

Moon Suit Patents

US Patent 3,381,303 was issued to Allyn B. Hazard on May 7, 1968. It was originally filed on Jan 2, 1964. You can find the document in the USPTO Database or download the PDF here.

There's some variation between the prototype produced by Hazard and the patent renderings (seems the original concept has the whole suit including the "bell" torso housing, to be encased in some type of beta material. The patent also has details of the accordion joints - I always wondered about those as when pressurized I'd imagine they would flop around much like the Major Matt Mason Moon Suit accessory. The patent describes a mechanical armature that maintains the joints flexibility.

If you search the USPTO database for "Allyn B. Hazard" you'll see another patent 3,516,243 "Globe Clock with Single Bearing" - another interesting read, if not as exciting as the Moon Suit patent.

Monday, July 7, 2014

Aerojet-General Spacelines and Rocket Review 1962 Edition "After Apollo - Exploring the Moon"

I cam across this partial article a few years ago but wasn't able to date it unil recently - there's an expansion of the graphic in the site I found (which appears to be a blogger site with emphasis on space in children's books "Dreams of Space"). The article (referencing the link at left) also features additional artist renderings including the two used in the Boys Life article.

Transcript:

After Apollo - Exploring the Moon

After the Apollo spacecraft lands its three- man crew on the moon and brings them back safely, what's the next step in lunar exploration?

A 12-man expedition to make a 500-mile research trip across the surface of the moon is proposed by Allyn B. Hazard, an engineer at Aerojet's subsidiary, Space-General Corporation.

It could be done in this decade, he says.

The spacemen would travel to the moon in four rockets-three round-trip passenger vehicles, the other a one-way cargo ship with 30,000 pounds of supplies to support the men and their scientific studies.

Each of the 12 astronauts would be a highly trained scientist or technologist in some particular field; some would be experts in several areas. On the moon, only four of them would make the trans-lunar journey, while the others remained at the rockets' landing site to conduct research.

The four explorers would wear special tub-like spacesuits in which they would have to live and work, eat and sleep, for the entire trip. They couldn't get out of the suits because of the airlessness and super-cold of the moon.

That's the reason for the suit's peculiar shape the wearer can slip his arms out of the sleeves to eat, adjust controls, make notes, or even to scratch his nose.

Umbilical connections would link each suit to a tractor-like "moon mobile" carrying the oxy- gen and life support system for two men. These would carry their passengers across the lunar landscape at five miles an hour. A 500 mile journey (for instance, from Crater Gruithuisen to Crater Aristarchus and back) would take 10 earth days. It would be made during the 330-hour lunar night, to avoid exposing the men to the sun's radiation.

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

Saturday, August 7, 2004

TVTornado (UK) Annual 1966

TVTornado Annual 1966 Cover

This annual (probably published around 1966?) features reprints of Western Publishing's comics of the day (The Saint, The Lone Ranger, Tarzan, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Submarine Seaview and Magnus Robot Fighter). Interspersed between the comics are various text stories, puzzles and editorials.

TVTornado Annual 1966 Page 71

This gem is on page 71 titled "Man in the Moon Suit" and features some funny pictures of Allyn Hazard wearing the suit walking down a side walk and riding in the back of a convertible Corvette. Martin Gainsford also turned me on to this annual (thanks Martin!).

Transcript below:

MAN IN THE MOON SUIT

In the everyday streets of an unnamed American city a strange sight stopped the traffic and made the passer-by stand and stare... a huge robot-like figure marched down the high street with a masterful but casual air.

Who was he? What was he? A new monster? A man from Mars? No... just an ordinary human trying on a suit designed for use on the moon's surface.

Scientists have been pondering how best to equip an explorer to the moon. Mr. Allyn B. Hazard, an engineer with Space-General Corporation, has come up with some of the answers.

First explorers on the moon, he thinks, will wear overside (sic), hardshell space suits, which will allow continuation of all normal body functions, including eating and sleeping. Likely to be built into the suit are a cooking-stove, camera, instrumental panel, heat controls and a communications system.

Other problems faced by the suit designer include the need for pressurisation (sic), an oxygen supply, and protection from extreme temperatures and ultra-violet rays.

A suit in the 'moon style' fashion looks heavy and clumsy. But every effort has been made to achieve the maximum mobility of arms and legs, and the fact that the pull of gravity is less on the moon should make movement easier.

What the first man to land on the moon will be wearing nobody is sure yet... but it will be something very like this.

Tuesday, June 1, 2004

Diana (UK) No. 321 April 12, 1969

Diana (UK) No. 321 1969.04.12 Cover

Worlds Best Astronaut
This scan of a "Diana" comic magazine cover was sent to me by Martin Gainsford in 2004 - a UK fan of my site. He's also a huge Gerry Anderson fan. The comic cover features a very whimsical depiction of Diana bouncing across a moonscape wearing the Moon Suit as the "Worlds Best Astronaut" - and here we were all thinking that was Major Matt Mason!

I don't know much about this comic, directed I think at young teens in the UK.

Diana (UK) No. 321 from 1969.04.12