Bell Rocket Belt and Apollo Rehearsals

Bell Aerospace tried developing Rocket Belt technology for the Apollo program.

After the first landings on the Moon, NASA was planning to send more advanced equipment aboard Apollo missions to explore further and do more varied scientific study. In the middle Sixties, they were looking at enchancing lunar mobility with wheeled vehicles and with small rocket vehicles. (As you know, the Lunar Rover "jeep" won this competition, and was used on Apollo 15, 16, and 17.)

The U.S. Geological Survey trained astronauts to be field geologists, and frequently took groups of astronauts on field trips. Also, USGS "astrogeologists" tested pressure suits, tools, instruments, etc. to evaluate them for lunar use.

At one point, in August 1966, Bell sent a Rocket Belt on a field trip to Hopi Buttes, Arizona, as a sort of simulator for the Lunar Flying Vehicle they were developing. I learned this from the book *The U.S. Geological Survey, Branch of Astrogeology-- A Chronology of Activities from Conception through the End of Project Apollo (1960- 1973)* by Gerald G. Schaber, also known as USGS Open-File Report 2005-1190.

For a PDF of this document, see <http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/of2005-1190.pdf>.

The figures (which are in separate PDF files, linked to by the main text) include some excellent color pictures of the Rocket Belt in action.

I recall from John Spencer's talk at the Rocketbelt Convention last year that he spent a lot of time on the LFV project. He was even fitted for his own Apollo space suit. Spencer was Bell's Chief Test Pilot at one time, and worked on the POGO rocket platform, LFV, and the X-22A VTOL.

Other advanced prototypes were tested by the USGS, such as multi-wheeled all-terrain vehicles and a mobile lunar laboratory. The wackiest-looking vehicle was a flatbed truck with a mockup of the Lunar Module spacecraft mounted on it. Makes sense-- you want people in pressure suits to practice getting in and out of the Lunar Module, going up and down the ladder, exploring the terrain, and so forth. So you want to have an accurate mockup you can move around on field trips. But it sure looks strange.

Here's what Schaber has to say about the rocket belt tests.

[begin quote from Schaber book, page 87:]

While all this wheeled-vehicle planning was under way, Textron Bell Aerospace Company was quietly developing a small manned lunar flying vehicle (LFV). A one-man version was demonstrated early in 1964 (see below). (A later generation of this device was demonstrated at large gatherings including the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, and a version was flown in the James Bond movie Thunderball.)

[Author's Note: A field demonstration of the remarkable Bell Aerospace Rocket-belt vehicle would later be carried out in the Hopi Buttes, Arizona in August 1966; see 1966 below for details.]

[Further quotes from Schaber, page 164:]

The following was taken from the Branch of Astrogeology Monthly Report for August 1966 to the Assistant Chief Geologist for Engineering Geology, and to NASA, from Chief, Branch of Astrogeology; dated 25 August 1966: [...]

On 2-3 August 1966, the Bell Aerospace Corp. "Rocket Belt", a prototype Lunar Flying Vehicle (LRF) was demonstrated for NASA and the USGS, Branch of Astrogeology out in Hopi Buttes, Arizona east of Flagstaff. The rocket belt could stay aloft for about 21 seconds. Given instructions from Supervisor Maury Brock, Astrogeology's Film Documentation Unit made a 16-mm film of this test. However, NASA quickly nixed distributing the film saying that it could be seen as NASA favoring one particular company (Bell Aerospace in this case) in any future competition for the LFV design and contract (Fig. 43).

[Author's Note: Gordon Swann told this author (personal communication, July 2002) that he really had a "go-around" with Branch of Astrogeology geologists Maury Brock and Al Chidester about producing a film about the rocket belt test, because it was obvious how NASA would take it [given that such a movie would seem like NASA was favoring Bell Aerospace over any other potential contractors). Swan said "I argued high and low about that but Al Chidester and Maury both overrode me on that one. We spend probably $30,000 on that film, and it got thrown in the trash can. When NASA got word of it they instructed us to destroy all existing copies--and not even to keep one." The Branch of Astrogeology "somehow" ended up keeping a single copy of this rather fascinating and historically significant film demonstrating the Bell Aerospace Lunar Vehicle, or rocket belt- in Hopi Buttes. It turns out that this "Rocket Man" film is one of the most requested from our Lunar and Planetary Data Facility at the Flagstaff Field Center by the news media and other sources.]

[end quote from Schaber book]

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calculations on the fly, split-second decisions, | Fermilab
huge amounts of data, incredible mental ability, |
and precise timing. In other words-- |
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