Video of astronauts falling over on the moon will never bore you
New Delhi : Possibly, the best trip ever! The video footage of astronauts bouncing around on the Moon is probably the most interesting stuff in the gallery of NASA. It seems that they had had their finest time ever in the most desired lunar space.
Notably, adjusting the body in low gravity is not that easy and may demand life for lifetime experience. NASA has a footage collection of men in puffy spacesuits falling over on the lunar surface. The space research agency has made detailed reports about all the times astronauts lost their footing, and there are good scientific reasons for this.
Talking about Apollo 15 launch, it was to study the metabolic rates of the astronauts as they traversed various types of terrain on the Moon - uphill, downhill, and flat terrain.
For Apollo 16, it was meant to evaluate the differences between dexterity and locomotion on Earth and the Moon, to better understand both lunar gravity and how it affects movement on the surface.
The confusing part is that while you might weigh less on the Moon, your mass stays the same and therefore inertia, which is a body's resistance to changes in motion and is related to mass, not weight, also stays the same.
Therefore, an astronaut walking on the Moon is doing so in very different conditions to what they're used to and this, in turn, results in some ups-a-daisies.
NASA researchers have described the reason behind these falls, and why each of them happened, as accurately as possible.
One Apollo 15 fall reads like this:
"[Commander David Scott] begins moving toward a new area as he gives the camera reading and summarises the description of the area. He steps around a group of rock fragments and then his right foot steps into a small depression and he begins to lose his balance. As he steps with his left foot, it slides off a small rock and continues sliding on the loose surface soil. While trying to drive his feet back under his center of gravity, Scott increases his forward velocity. He then falls forward with both hands extended to break the fall. Landing on his left side, he rolls counterclockwise and on his back and is then out of view of the TV camera."
The Apollo 16 report goes into a little more analysis, breaking down the falls to clarify the reason for the fall, how it happened, and how the astronaut recovered.
Lunar module pilot Charles Duke fell down when he stopped to pick up a pair of tongs and, "in doing so he stepped on the tongs so that when he tried to lift them he lost his balance."
Commander John Young also fell down picking up objects - a brush, a sample bag and other falls are related to the loose, dry lunar regolith, which makes it difficult to get good traction on the Moon's surface.
The aforesaid information is useful for those who want to take a trip to the Moon, in the coming years. Do watch the video and imagine your trips!
