Monday, March 3, 2014

When Space Suits Were Awesome

Fred Freeman did the best space suit illustrations. His suits were sleek and vaguely menacing, unlike the pressurized Michellin man suits NASA finally adopted.

I understand why current space suits are the way they are, but Freeman's suits weren't just some random daydream, he incorporated design elements based on fighter pilot suits like pressurized tubing to give the suit structure without compromising movement, and included helium coolant and even tentacle gloves.

These guys have found a problem. Let's hope they sort it out before it contaminates all their oxygen.

If you can find a copy of First Men to the Moon written by Von Braun and illustrated by Freeman, it's full of this stuff.

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