This silent film, “Lunar Surface Task Analysis for Apollo Experiments Support” is one of a series produced by NASA’s George C. Marshall Flight Center. It shows training / testing of both spacesuits and a moon vehicle mock-up. The film is silent but there does appear to be a plot — its seems to show the rescue of one astronaut by another after a rock collection goes awry. The spacesuits shown appear similar to those used in Project Mercury, and likely pre-date Apollo. The mock-up shown is an early version of the MOLAB, which was initially developed by Northrop beginning in 1963 as an Apollo Logistics Support System. (MOLAB was also known as the “MGL” for “Mobile Geological Laboratory”). This vehicle concept evolved from the study contract NAS8-11096. This vehicle mock up concept was constructed at MSFC and was used later to study the human factors aspect of conduction lunar exploration missions.This concept was to be flown to the Moon using a separate Saturn V vehicle and landed automatically there. MOLAB was never fully developed due to weight considerations, but nevertheless a (much different than shown) working prototype version was created, built and developed by GM engineer Vic Hickey. It was powered by a Corvair engine. NASA used MOLAB for seven years, developing moon suits for the Apollo astronauts (who actually trained in and drove MOLAB in the New Mexico desert). It was then loaned to the U.S. Geological Survey and performed groundbreaking work mapping mineral deposits and taking soil samples.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com