Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 72 — page 84: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The author of this article comes up with a surprisingly simple answer to a problem which will soon have to be solved Design for a Space Suit by COLIN MAY HEN MEN VENTURE into space they are going to be faced with the necessity of taking their environment with them. Basic- ally, this environment can be reduced to the prime factors of air, water, food and protection. Unless a space- ship or space station can provide these factors, then men will not be able to survive. But space stations have to be built, spaceships may need attention and, of course, there is always ex- ploration. Space suits, then, are essential. A space suit is simply a device which will enable a man to live and work in the void. Fundamentally, the _problem isn’t new. Deep-sea divers have met and faced it, high-altitude climbers and 83 pilots the same. Individual protection to maintain life in a hostile environment is com- mon. It would only be reason- able to assume that an exist- ing device, such as a diving dress, could be adapted to enable a man to live in space. Reasonable, but wrong. Space is somewhat unique in that, as we’ve never been there, we can only guess at what will be needed. It is because of this guesswork, and the fact that anyone’s theory was as good as anyone else’s, that many wrong no- tions and false concepts have grown and circulated about the probable form a space suit will take. The favourite of most artists and authors seems to be a loose-fitting suit made of some tough, flexible material and equipped with combicbooks.com