NASA 1984 through 2011 Spacesuit and Manned Maneuvering Unit Design Sketch

ARTIST: William Louis ("Bill") McDonald Senior.

COMPANY: Argonaut-GreyWolf.

CLIENT: Me. I intend for this Sketch-a-Doodle render to be used as a sketch illustration spacesuit demo for creating either nation specific spacesuits as historically and scientifically real or as a starting point for science fiction space environmental concept designs.

YEAR: 2009.

WEBSITE: www.alienufoart.com/alien-ufo-…

WEBSITE: www.deviantart.com/argonaut-gr…

WEBSITE: argonaut-greywolf.artstation.c…

MEDIA: Non-photo blue Prisma pencils and graphite #2 pencils.

NOTES: The Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) is an astronaut propulsion unit that was used by NASA on three Space Shuttle missions in 1984. The MMU allowed the astronauts to perform untethered extravehicular spacewalks at a distance from the shuttle. The MMU was used in practice to retrieve a pair of faulty communications satellites, Westar VI and Palapa B2. Following the third mission the unit was retired from use. A smaller successor, the Simplified Aid For EVA Rescue (SAFER), was first flown in 1994, and is intended for emergency use only.

U.S. astronaut Bruce McCandless used a NASA Manned Maneuvering Unit during the 1984 STS-41-B mission.

The final MMU mission was STS-51-A, which flew in November 1984. The propulsion unit was used to retrieve two communication satellites, Westar VI and Palapa B2, that did not reach their proper orbits because of faulty propulsion modules. Astronauts Joseph P. Allen and Dale Gardner captured the two satellites and brought them into the Orbiter payload bay for stowage and return to Earth.

LOCATION: This illustrative sketch image was rendered at Mesa, Arizona, USA.