 The early days of space exploration bred some of the strangest technologies, including one proposal called Moose, that was effectively a single-man wearable life raft to bring him home from orbit. The Moose concept was pioneered by General Electric in the early 1960s, and it was the space version of someone putting on a life jacket to jump off a burning ship in the middle of the ocean. It was essentially a wearable single-man reentry vehicle, and here's how it worked. GE imagined this concept would come in handy on later missions. Beyond Mercury and Gemini that were small orbital missions, it would be useful during space station missions or even just long duration missions on a larger vehicle. The thought was, if something happened to the main spacecraft or space station, this could be a very easy lifeboat of sorts that an astronaut could use to return safely to Earth. In the event of a catastrophic failure in orbit, the astronaut would put on a special spacesuit, not unlike the ones that he would use during an EVA. Attached to the suit was a Mylar bag, and this bag was, in effect, the reentry vehicle itself. There was a 1⁄4 inch heat shield on the back of it and two canisters of space-filling foam on the inside. The foam is where it gets really interesting. There was also a very rudimentary siting system that would allow the astronaut inside to use it to spot his position relative to the Earth's horizon for reentry. And of course, because the vehicle was designed to de-orbit and began to fall back to Earth through the atmosphere, it had a small reentry rocket motor on board as well. So the astronaut in trouble needing to return to Earth but without a spacecraft would put on the special suit. Once he was all zipped up inside it and fully protected, he would push himself away from the damaged spacecraft and then use the two canisters of foam to basically squirt out the contents and they would fill out the bulk of the vehicle and form a casing around him, putting him effectively into a cocoon. The foam would give this wearable vehicle rigidity but also fill out the back of it such that it would take on a blunt body shape being the best for reentry. Once ensconced in his little space womb, the astronaut would be able to use the siting mechanism to align himself to the Earth's horizon and pretty much wait until he found that he was over a good spot to land. He could avoid landing in a foreign country or over ocean, although the vehicle could support him landing in both places. Once he was ready, he could fire the small rocket motors to begin his de-orbit burn and then release them. Once he began his fall through the atmosphere, it was like any vehicle re-entering the atmosphere. The fall was ballistic. He could sit back, relax and watch the flames just engulfing his teeny tiny little spacecraft. The heat shield would protect him during re-entry and the fabric over top of him would protect him from the residual heat that would actually be able to reach the front side of his body. He would be re-entering, like in the spacecraft, backside down. Once landed either in the ocean or on land, he would have enough emergency supplies to sustain him long enough for recovery crews to reach him. Various reports say the whole system would weigh anywhere between 200 and 470 pounds but it's not hard to see that even something super easy to use in lightweight wouldn't be ideal. A vehicle that small can't have a lot of life support or emergency supplies. Not to mention the idea of wearing your re-entry vehicle might be a little bit terrifying to some. GE imagined this system being used only in the most dire of circumstances after the re-entry vehicles were all damaged or broken and there couldn't be a rescue mission mounted. Only then would the astronauts wear their little re-entry vehicles and basically fall through the atmosphere in little cocoons. But even if it was a very good last resort for astronaut safety, neither NASA nor the Air Force were particularly interested in it. NASA mentioned the Moose concept in a 1969 report but it never gained any traction and the idea quietly became a very odd footnote in the history of early space exploration. So what do you guys think about a one-man wearable re-entry vehicle? Because frankly, nothing sounds more terrifying to me. And related, have you guys read about any other weird early 60s technologies to bring astronauts home safely? Because I feel like in the era where no one really knew what was happening in space, there were no bad ideas. Let me know if you have any other concepts you'd like me to dig into in the comment section below. And of course, any other questions, comments you've got about this topic. And if you've got more questions, which I think some of you might, there is of course a companion blog post over on Discover. I've got the link for that in the description. So check that out if you'd like to know a little bit more about the Moose concept. I also want to remind you guys that I am super excited to have a brand new feature on Vintage Space, which is sponsorships. I am now able to accept sponsors, which means you guys have a chance to help make Vintage Space possible. There's a video right up here explaining how it works and how it works in conjunction with Patreon and also a couple links in the description. So definitely check that out if you want to help make Vintage Space possible. As always, leave all of your questions, comments, concerns, I guess. 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