Did NASA Commission A Super Monkey Ball Prototype?

 

Nova's website is hosting an interactive slide show of early space suit prototypes, and one of them looks eerily familiar.

No, that's not a drawing from my sixth grade algebra notebook. Engineers at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Resources Laboratory came up with this zany space suit, dubbed Spherical Experiment #1 (SX-1), for NASA in late 1964. The team designed the transparent sphere to give astronauts the ability to roll themselves across the lunar surface.

To think, these scientists could have made millions if they had only removed those crazy arms, replaced the dad from King of the Hill with a large-eared monkey, and created a series of obstacle course puzzles for it to navigate!

[Source: Gizmodo]