Quoted By:
Quote, “Pennsylvania live demonstrations of the suit during the week-long meeting attracted wide interest and attention plus some disbelief. It was hard for some of the onlookers to believe that so much mobility could be designed into an inflated
space suit…” “…but it was developed to meet the greater mobility requirements of manned space missions to follow the Apollo moon landing program, and would in fact be tested on the moon”.
Several people contend that if as early as 1968 this was the best
piece of equipment available, NASA had the time and money to ensure that it would be used on every apollo mission and of course that was the goal. After all the billions of dollars were spent in sending men to the moon, it is only reasonable to make sure that once the men are there they can perform their tasks in the best possible manner. If they were not used, then perhaps NASA wanted to continue to convince the public that the moon had a weak gravity, or if the astronauts were encumbered there would be less chance of a breach in the cover-up.
The bulkiness and weight would be good excuses for anemic jumping and maneuvering attempts. However, what appeared to be stiff waists in the suits were shown to be a lie when they easily climbed into their lunar rover vehicle and sat down in the seats in the same position that you find yourself in a small compact car.
However it was pointed out that the Apollo 16 astronauts had great flexibility with improved suits, yet they were still not capable of worthy jumping feats.
Why?
