NASA Exercise: Survival on the Moon

Going for this order, top being 1, bottom being 15

20 liters of water
Two 100 lb tanks of oxygen
Once case of dehydrated milk
Stellar map
Self-inflating lift raft
50 feet of nylon rope
Portable heating unit
Solar-powered FM receiver-transmitter
Food concentrate
parachute silk
Magnetic compass
First aid kit, including injection needle
Signal flares
Box of matches
Two .45 calibre pistols

Logic behind it is that water & O2 is most important > knowing HOW to get to the ship (Magnetic compass might not work due to the poor dipolar lunar field) > raft for shelter & to put stuff in to to drag along, rope to pull it, FM radio to ensure your heading in the right direction. Pistols, matches, flares, first aid kit i don't see the point in as it doesn't say you're injured and mostly need O2 to function (depends on flares i guess)

Edit: googled the results:
Got 40

- GP
 
The pistols, which people are tending to rate quite lowly, can be used as a form of propulsion due to Newton's Third Law so I'm guessing NASA (who like a good bit of physics) would rate them much higher than people would expect (say 5-7).
 
15-Box of matches
14- Magnetic compass
13-Self-inflating lift raft
12-Two .45 calibre pistols
11-Stellar map
10-Once case of dehydrated milk
9-Signal flares
8-parachute silk
7-50 feet of nylon rope
6-First aid kit, including injection needle
5-Solar-powered FM receiver-transmitte
4-Portable heating unit
3-Food concentrate
2-20 liters of water
1-Two 100 lb tanks of oxygen

28 not that shabby. Screwed myself with the portable heating unit and stellar map. Assumed heat would be an issue and navigating from the stars would be memorised(I guess there's too much to memorise really on second thought).

Must admit I did wonder how the injection needle works through a suit. Seems there's a certain area designed to take needles. Rather impressive!
 
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ianh said:
The pistols, which people are tending to rate quite lowly, can be used as a form of propulsion due to Newton's Third Law so I'm guessing NASA (who like a good bit of physics) would rate them much higher than people would expect (say 5-7).
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I was thinking this, but I wasn't sure if they'd work with no atmosphere, and how much force they'd give. Plus there are only 2 of them and you have a crew of 'x' amount.

Edit: google tells me they can fire in space, and matches can be lit in space too.
 
ianh said:
The pistols, which people are tending to rate quite lowly, can be used as a form of propulsion due to Newton's Third Law so I'm guessing NASA (who like a good bit of physics) would rate them much higher than people would expect (say 5-7).
Click to expand...

they're .45 handguns, even with 1/6th mavity you're not going to have any useful level of propulsion even if you mag dump them, and even if you did you'd not be able to control it.

if we're talking propulsion i'd be looking at ripping the inflation mechanism out of the raft.
 
Two 100 lb tanks of oxygen - 1
20 liters of water - 2
Food concentrate - 3
Stellar map - 4
Solar-powered FM receiver-transmitter - 5
First aid kit, including injection needle - 6
50 feet of nylon rope - 7
parachute silk - 8
Portable heating unit - 9
Once case of dehydrated milk - 10
Signal flares - 11
Self-inflating lift raft - 12
Two .45 calibre pistols - 13
Box of matches - 14
Magnetic compass - 15

That seems to make sense to me, although I've probably missed something obvious and got the whole point the of the question wrong! The matches and compass are a complete waste of time, however they've probably thrown the pistols in as a curve ball and they are actually really useful. I'd like to put the heating unit up higher but not at the expense of anything above it.
 
I scored 32. My biggest score difference was for the dehydrated milk, I thought it'd be a fair bit higher up the list.
 
adolf hamster said:
who says you need to take everything? just what you need.
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Thing is if you have a means of getting there before your oxygen runs out then you don't need most of the rest - if you are taking enough time you are going to need drink never mind food you are going to run out of oxygen a long time before you get there.
 
Two 100 lb tanks of oxygen
Portable heating unit
20 liters of water
Solar-powered FM receiver-transmitter
Food concentrate
Stellar map
50 feet of nylon rope
Box of matches
parachute silk
Two .45 calibre pistols
Once case of dehydrated milk
Self-inflating lift raft
Magnetic compass
Signal flares
First aid kit, including injection needle
 
Rroff said:
Thing is if you have a means of getting there before your oxygen runs out then you don't need most of the rest - if you are taking enough time you are going to need drink never mind food you are going to run out of oxygen a long time before you get there.
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indeed, like i said if i was walking it'd be oxygen, water, map, rope and radio.

and tbh if the space suits couldnt allow drinking from an external source there's no point in bringing the water.

again there's a lot riding on what the capabilities of the space suit are.
 
adolf hamster said:
indeed, like i said if i was walking it'd be oxygen, water, map, rope and radio.

and tbh if the space suits couldnt allow drinking from an external source there's no point in bringing the water.

again there's a lot riding on what the capabilities of the space suit are.
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yeah if you can't drink or eat the water/food then no point in taking them - probably be a bit difficult to get very far without water at least though.
200 miles is a long way - are they expecting you to go the whole distance?
 
Firestar_3x said:
NASA doesn't agree.
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Looking it up the original NASA one is 50 miles not 200 - which is much more doable in respect to the oxygen supply though reduces the requirements for some of the other stuff.

Also:

“With basically no atmosphere on the Moon, oxygen (O2) to breathe is the most pressing survival need. The average person needs about 0.84kilograms (a little less than 2 pounds) of O2 per day.”
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Not sure that quite works though even if the tanks are pure oxygen - the I think 31lbs tanks used in the original space suits lasted around 6.5 hours under active conditions.
 
Rroff said:
Looking it up the original NASA one is 50 miles not 200 - which is much more doable in respect to the oxygen supply though reduces the requirements for some of the other stuff.
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The premise is similar, i.e. it can be used for communication if in range, though i do wonder why the scenario has been changed an who did it from the original NASA publication.
 
Firestar_3x said:
The premise is similar, i.e. it can be used for communication if in range, though i do wonder why the scenario has been changed an who did it from the original NASA publication.
Click to expand...

The original NASA one makes a bit more sense on some things such as having space blankets which would be pretty much essential I think for managing the conditions.
 
Maybe I am overthinking this. But before I make my choices I need more information.

Are we expecting to hike the 200 miles or do we have a buggy?

Do we have a habitat (pressurized Tent) , or are we going to have to spend all the time in our space suits? (I am assuming that the space suits have a means for introducing Air, Food and Water while still in a vacuum)

These things make a difference in the order of priority.

(EG a first Aid kit is pretty useless if you cant take your space suit off, though anything administrated using the needles might have a use if you have a way of sealing the hole afterwards)

Oh, And PS, I have deliberately not looked ant any other posts since that would spoil the test!
 
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