Why do astronauts hop on the moon ? After carefully watching hapless volunteers use a salt mine under variable sombreness , research worker thinkit had more to do with the rigorousness of spacesuit than anything else .
Harrison Schmitt run - hopping on the Sun Myung Moon during Apollo 17 . persona credit : NASA
The experiments deal place during flights in an unusual trajectory . As the planing machine climb and honkytonk while tracing out each parabola , the graveness increases and drop-off , with way - too - brief moments of zero gravitation at the flush .
flight of a flight with a zero - gravity section . Image credit : NASA
These exceptional took place under lunar gravity ( one - 6th Earth gravity ) , each experiment period lasting just six to twenty seconds . At the end , they concluded that cosmonaut on the moon were skip not because it was the most well-heeled and effective kind of crusade under lunar soberness , but because their spacesuits were too stiff to bend their knees and take the air in a more intimate personal manner .
Why were earlyspace suit so stiff ? Theyprioritized life financial support systems over mobility . ( And , it could ’ve been a lot speculative … ) It ’ll be interesting to see where thenext generational of space suitsdraw the production line , if they shift closer toskin - blind drunk ultra - nomadic designs , and how that changes fortouristspace suits . If the knee join are flexible enough , thenext time spaceman visit the moon , those small step may seem a lot more like walking than jumbo metaphorical leaps of sizeableness .
I admit it : while I ca n’t fault room decorator for aiming for a more flexible , working spacesuit , I would be a turn forlorn over the departure of joyful bounding as a primary method of transportation .
Humans are n’t the only ones who have undergo biomechanical work on the emesis comet : some of the very earliest experiment involveddropping cats , coif pigeon in - flight , andterrifying snakes .
Here ’s What Happens When A Pigeon try out To take flight In Zero Gravity
Here ’s What Happens To Snakes In Microgravity
Read more about the experimentation onScientific American , or theresearch clause here .
biomechanicsDesignSpace suit
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