In the relatively short time that humans have been venturing
into space, we’ve been trying to perfect the suits worn by
astronauts when they leave the comforts of Earth. Not all of
them have been winners – the concepts seen here didn’t quite
make the outer-space cut. Above, a truly bizarre spherical suit
concept from 1964 that would have allowed astronauts to wander
around hamster-style on the Moon. When a greater amount of
agility was needed, astronauts could simply slip their arms and
legs into the appendages, leaving the sphere to sit on moon
walker’s back, sort of like a hermit crab’s shell. This concept
from 1957 was actually used in the Air Force’s X-15 Program, an
early rocket-powered spaceplane experiment that took pilots to
the very edge of outer space. Unfortunately, since movable
fingers are quite difficult to engineer, the pilots wound up
wearing ridiculous-looking inflated mittens that look like they
were tacked on as an afterthought. Judging by the miserable look
on this pilot’s face, the men wh