A visible-light image of the Andromeda Galaxy, taken by Torben Hansen.
CC Torben Hansen

British Interplanetary Society Lunar Spacesuit

British Interplanetary Society Lunar Spacesuit

Realisation model of the 1949 British Interplanetary Society (BIS) Lunar Spacesuit.

During the 1940s, BIS members Harry Ross and Ralph Smith worked on the first serious scientific study of what a spacesuit for the Moon would look like. Smith drew detailed pictures and schematics, which accompanied a paper the two men wrote for the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society (JBIS).

Using only materials and techniques available in the 1940s, historic costume makers Ancient Wisdom worked with the National Space Centre to make Ross and Smith's design in the real world.

The suit comes with a life support backpack, rock collecting hammer, shooting-stick, and even a cape - which forms part of an ingenious climate control system for the wearer.

Video

Harry Ross and Ralph Smith - Credit: British Pathé

More information

Object number

2019-10

Location

Rocket Tower Level 2

Curator's comments

The suit design includes an airlock in the chest. This would have allowed the wearer to put objects (e.g. Moon rock samples) through the outer door, and then retrieve them through the inner door once the outer door had been resealed. In order to do so, the wearer needed to retract their arms from their sleeves, allowing them to work inside the suit in the bulbous chest area.

Has this object been into space?

No

Material

Metal
Rubber
Leather
Cotton
Fibreglass
Lamé
Wool
Nylon
Copper
Tufnol
Bakelite
Perspex

Materials & techniques note

The helmet is made from fibreglass, with a vacuum-plated aluminium finish. The neck-ring is also fibreglass, whilst Perspex is used within the visor.
The suit is multi-layered, with a cotton twill outer layer. Ross and Smith's designs called for a shiny silver surface layer on top of this, which we chose to paint. Had they built the suit in the 1940s, materials like Mylar would have become available eventually.
Internal latex rubber, nylon and cotton layers are used in this suit - and a similar multi-layered design is detailed in Ross and Smith's plans.
'Lift the dot' studs are used for attaching the Lamé cape.
The boots use leather, copper and fibreglass, and are based on diving suit technology from the 1940s.
The backpack utilises Tufnol sheet material, aluminium, rubber and Bakelite.

Associated Organisation

British Interplanetary Society

Associated Person

Harry Ross
Ralph Smith

Object Production Date

2019

Object Production Notes

Object manufactured in collaboration between Ancient Wisdom and National Space Centre

Object Production Organisation

Ancient Wisdom
National Space Centre

Object Production Place

Suffolk
United Kingdom

On Display Status

On display

Copyright and Photos

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Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.