Space General Corporation Lunar Exploration Suit, Model MK 1

Tuesday, January 2, 2001

50 YEARS OF RESEARCH The Second Decade: 1955-1964

Dressing For Space

"In February of 1961, what the well-dressed space explorer might wear on the moon is modeled using an integrated space suit. Designed by Allyn B. Hazard, the suit is a rather awesome 8-feet high with twin antennas sticking from the helmet, rubber encased arms and legs, a hefty circular midriff, and identification and ground lights. The researchers say that like a skin diver, the moon explorer will have to carry his earth environment with him, including food and liquid, a communication system, and power supply."

Click here to read the entire 50 years of Research article. (the Moonsuit pic and paragraph are halfway down the page).

Many thanks to MMM list member BJ West for directing me to the UCLA site and this previously unseen image.

There is more information from JPL's own files, provided by David S. F. Portree on his website Romance to Reality (unfortunately the links I had to the author and website are defunct).

Monday, July 5, 1999

Life Science Library - Man and Space, 1964

Life Science Library - Man and Space, 1964 Cover

This is a really wonderful Life Science Library book, part of the Life Science Library series of hardcover books intended for young adults and as family reference. Of the entire set, this is the most interesting to me as it contains some really great Life photography of man's exploration of space. Since it was published before the first Moon landing, the photographs and artists' renderings are mostly speculative, are based on current Mercury/Gemini technology, and incorporate a lot of science fiction elements. This is to be expected, as Science Fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke and "the Editors of Life" are listed as the authors.

The first black and white moonsuit photo is used as the opening image for chapter one: "The Dreamers and the Doers." (see below for photo and caption "Attired for Space").

The book goes into depth on propulsion, rocketry (with some great renderings, diagrams and history), proposed vehicles including the Nova class, the various US and Russian space programs/projects, and most important to us, proposed moonsuit designs.

Attired for Space

"A technician tests a space suit in simulated moon conditions - a Mojave desert lava cave. By the time the first deep-space voyagers actually depart, tens of thousands of tests will have been made, so that every conceivable exigency can be met and overcome. For example, this suit allows its wearer to pull his arms inside for the vital luxury of scratching an itch."

Trends in Space Fashions

"Buck Rogers needed little protection on his comic-strip planets, but Wiley Post's 1934 suit anticipated real space conditions. The Mercury pressure suit was mainly for cooling since the capsule was pressurized. The projected moon suit is intended for wear over several weeks."

At Home on the Moon

An advance scientific base using specialized LESA (Lunar Exploration System for Apollo) modules might resemble this scene. In the foreground is a shelter LESA with bunks and showers on the top floor, supplies and generators below."

I included this pic with the accompanying caption as the suited figure in the foreground looks like a typical Major Matt Mason figure in his space suit. Also, the Station could be a model for the Major Matt Mason space station (imagine the station wrapped in a tin can!)...note the chair, the round hole in the floor, the shelves, etc.

Wednesday, April 8, 1998

Moon Suit Souvenir Coin

I came across this oddball in an eBay auction. I ended up getting outbid on the coin and the description was very lacking so I don't know its dimensions or origin. It's still interesting, though, that someone somewhere decided that a commemorative coin needed to be made! It has "Made in Guatemala" and "By Peter Pan" on the face, so it may have been a peanut butter giveaway.

Friday, September 5, 1997

Welcome to the Space General Corporation Moon Suit page

Allyn Hazard in the Mojave Desert

Recently I've decided to migrate all of the contents of Wildtoys.com to Blogger - this is to ensure that the content is always available, in defiance of paying hosting fees - hopefully Blogger will continue to be a free content publishing service.

I originally published the Moon Suit area of Wildtoys in June 2002 (my first images were hosted within the Major Matt Mason section in 1997 thus the publication dates) and expanded on it for a couple of years. I have new images and content that I'll be adding to this site as a definitive archive.

-- John

Life Magazine, April 27, 1962

Life Magazine, April 27, 1962 Cover

More than likely, the cover of this issue of Life, which features the bell-like Moon Suit, was the inspiration to Mattel for the Major Matt Mason accessory. The cover story is "Man's Journey to the Moon" and some of the interior stories follow this theme. At some point I'll take new images of the cover and entire article and provide a transcript.

Inside, another photo of the suit with the caption "Moon Suit. Testing a moon suit mock-up, Inventor Allyn Hazard stands in a lava crater on the Mojave Desert. Suit carries own oxygen, food." The accompanying article has "As for protecting the men themselves, at least one company - California's Space-General - has already built and is trying out a very early model moon suit.

Life Magazine, April 27, 1962 2-Page Image

It carries food, water, a radio, a tiny stove and air conditioning to insulate its occupant from the 300 degree fluctuations of lunar temperature. Its weight of 200 pounds, unwieldy on earth, should be no problem on the moon where things weigh six times less." Below the article are photos of various moon vehicles...one looks a little like the Major Matt Mason Space Bubble.

Further on there's this spread of proposed lunar vehicles including one (in bold - transcript below) by the Space General Corporation.

A Model Menagerie of Moon Vehicles (image by Paul Vreede)

Transcript:

A Model Menagerie of Moon Vehicles

Eight bizarre vehicles, models built by U.S. companies to test various concepts of getting about on the moon, sit on a simulated bit of lunar landscape. The models, most of which actually work, are (front row, left to right) an RCA six-legged walker carrying a drill in its red head for taking geological samples; a General Motors screwlike vehicle designed to worm its way through lunar dust; another RCA walker with rubber-covered leg joints, a radio antenna on its head. In the second row are a Bendix vehicle which unfolds from a rocket, then crawls about on sagging and flexible yellow wheels; a GM vehicle with six grapefruitlike wheels designed for traveling in very soft dust. In the back row are an RCA balloon vehicle, powered by a disk of solar-charged batteries on top (the actual one could stand 100 feet high and roll gently around on its soft plastic body); another variety of RCA walker, this one four-legged; an elaborate Space-General walker with a roof of solar batteries, three pairs of legs and a TV camera and mechanical hand on its outstretched mechanical arms.
(image by Paul Vreede from his great Triang/SpaceX site.