|
 The
space suits in Conquest of Space aren't that bad; even if
they're a bit on the lightweight side. The accordion pleating on
the arms and legs are better than those on the
Destination Moon suits
and much closer to the real thing worn by the Apollo astronauts a
decade later. Also, the helmets have a more practical feel about
them, though the huge alarm-clock regulators on their chests and the
air bottles without any form of environmental controls make the hookup
seem like something more suited to scuba diving than spaceflight.
But it isn't hard to discover
the paternity of these suits. On the left we have
an illustration from the
Collier's magazine series on space written in part by Willy Ley
and Werner Von Braun. The helmet, pleats, air bottles, and
general cut are all there. The only difference is that where the
suits in Conquest of Space have gauntlets, the Collier's
suit has rather frightening looking mechanical claws.
 Of course, working in
orbit means zero gravity, so why are these idiots standing upright on
that hatch? The answer lies in their boots, which are soled with that
standby of the desperate filmmaker: Magnets.
I don't understand why NASA
never went in for magnets. If the cinema is anything to go by,
they're the perfect solution to the problems of freefall. Not
only do they keep astronauts from floating away, but they also allow
them to sit and lie down as if in normal gravity, stop items from
floating out of drawers when opened and cause harnesses and other bits
of equipment to hang downwards. I'd like to see Velcro top that.
Mind you, putting magnetic boots
on is invariably a prelude to tedious comic relief, so perhaps the
ledger balances out pretty fairly. |
