MOOSE (“Man Out Of Space Easiest”) is kinda legendary among the twenty or so of us who have actually heard of it. It was a 1960’s concept for a minimum “escape capsule” for astronauts on board space stations. Rather than something as hideously gigantic and complex as a Mercury capsule, MOOSE would be little bigger than a backpack. In short, it was a large plastic bag and a canister of fast-curing polyethylene foam, plus a small retrorocket. As your space station falls apart around you, you’d get into your rather minimal space suit, grab a MOOSE, and bail out the door. Once out you’d set the thing off, which would cause the foam to be squirted into the plastic bag. The bag would shape the foam into a *sorta* ballistically stable capsule. You’d orient yourself backside-forward, then hit the retro rocket. It would dump you out of orbit; the foam would protect you from re-entry heating, and you’d parachute to a gentle landing, with probably a minimum of breaking your legs on landing.
MOOSE has been described online in numerous places. But Cracked just published what has to be the best description here:
6 Terrifying Emergency Escape Pods (That Aren’t Worth It)
Of the six “escape pods,” MOOSE comes in at Number 1.
Your spaceship is now complete: You, in a wet sack of foam.
And my favorite line of the whole thing was the NSFW answer to the question that was posed: Somebody asked the question: “What’s the easiest way to get a man out of space?”
8 Responses to “MOOSE: Best Description”
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The old Traveller roleplaying game included personal re-entry pods as a sport like skydiving or bungee jumping. I never was aware it was based on a real concept.
One of the next extreme sports: Skydiving from outer space.
How much foam would you need to ensure an astronauts survival? It’ really not the parachutes or landing that bother me, but the foam. Sounds like you have two choices with this one: die of oxygen deprivation in space, or burn up while entering the atmosphere.
I think if an astronaut suffered a broken leg or two, they would be grateful to have survived re-entry with MOOSE.
This is one of those ideas that is both wacky and plausible. The problem isn’t the heat shielding, but keeping the astronaut from overheating during re-entry.
> How much foam would you need to ensure an astronauts survival?
Not that much, actually. Something with little more than the mass of a human but with the cross sectional area of a Mercury capsule would have a whole lot of area to distribute a relatively small amount of heat. It would probably be one hell of a ride… kinda like hitting a brick wall. But under the circumstances, ablative low density but structurally sound foam a foot or so thick would very likely be quite satisfactory.
Hmmm… I always thought the “E” meant “Earliest”.
I first heard of MOOSE from an old issue of Popular Science at a library once. The article did point out the desperation nature of the contraption. There were some other emergency re entry gadgets in that magazine: a sort of super B 70 escape capsule and a metal heatshield thing that unfolds like a flower opening. The idea on that last one was the drag was so high it decelerated early and so minimized re entry heating.
The idea of space skydiving is somewhat like the delivery system the Mobile Infantry used in Starship Troopers (book only unfortunately), there they had an ablative reentry pod that burned off and then the grunt fell the rest of the way in an armored suit – pretty awesome. I’m pretty sure there was a parachute in there somewhere – and flak.
There’s apparently a deleted scene from Star Trek: Generations that featured the retired James Kirk taking up orbital skydiving since he couldn’t get his thrills from seeking out new life and chicks to bang anymore.
I wouldn’t be surprised if someone like Virgin Galactic has thought up of a way to make some money by offering this thrill to the uber-rich and bored sector. Hell, I’d do it if I thought the odds were right.
I once suggested using B-70 escape pods as an extreme sport, but that got laughed out of court. With these things as models, the escape pod skydiving sounds quite reasonable and even a bit dull.
They should make one for Felix Baumgartner to try!