NASA Exercise: Survival on the Moon

[Angilion]

But then you have to take in to account of the weight of water, food and oxygen.

Which is ~1/6th of what it is on Earth. On the moon with ordinary human strength, you are extremely strong. A litre of water weighs about 150g on the moon. That's trivial. Even a big oxygen tank is a minor weight. The "100lb" oxygen tank mentioned weighs about 7Kg on the moon.

I doubt you could walk at 3mph on the moon as that is the same average as walking on earth. Don't forget the moons gravity is about 16% that of the earth.

In the article I linked to, they tested volunteers in lunar gravity. They were walking at 3.1mph. You can walk at 4.5mph in Earth's gravity.

If you can walk 200miles in 7 hours on earth then you are superman. Without sleep you could only walk 72miles at full pace in 1 day.

Doesn't 7 hours at 3MPH = 21 miles, not 200 miles?

Ooops! There was a slight error in my calculations. Only one order of magnitude! Good job I'm not an engineer! If you're ever stranded on the moon with minimal equipment and need to trek to the mothership, don't use me as your phone a friend for advice

OK, so ~70 hours of walking rather than ~7. Still not completely impossible, particularly since you have Terran strength to move 1/6th Terran weight so you're using a much lower proportion of your maximum strength and thus tire much more slowly. By itchy's original figures, you have 324 hours to do that ~70 hours of walking. I think you'd have much less because you couldn't survive in the full heat of the lunar day (324 hours is sunup to sundown), but I don't know how much less. I still think it's doable in terms of distance and speed, though, especially when your motivation for walking is not dying.

 

[itchy]

Your forgetting you have to sleep eat and replenish your oxygen supply.

Not sure where you got the 4.5mph figure from.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preferred_walking_speed.

Also the faster you walk the more oxygen and water you would use.

Its just not possible as I said before 50 miles maybe but 200 no chance.

 

[Angilion]

Your forgetting you have to sleep eat and replenish your oxygen supply.

You eat (and drink) while walking. You can't replenish your oxygen supply.

Not sure where you got the 4.5mph figure from.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preferred_walking_speed.

From a fast walking speed on Earth, not a preferred walking speed. If preference is the key factor, then we aren't walking 200 miles to survive. We're where we should have been to begin with or we're using a vehicle.

Also the faster you walk the more oxygen and water you would use.

Its just not possible as I said before 50 miles maybe but 200 no chance.

What you said before is that it's impossible to walk 200 miles in 324 hours because humans can't walk that fast even if they don't sleep.

Its a very inquisitive question and I have done the maths.

The moon rotates around in about 27 days so that leaves 13.5 days in daylight to make a 200 mile trip.

Even with no sleep you would not make it at all. 50miles could be done but 200miles not a chance.

Don't forget on the moon you don't walk you bounce and contact with the surface is not very good to get a good walking speed pace.

You screwed basically.

Humans can walk faster than 0.62mph. Even in lunar gravity.

If you're saying that you'd run out of oxygen before making it 200 miles, then I'd agree with you.

Incidentally, the humans who did walk on the moon bounced because their suits were too restrictive to walk in. They literally couldn't make the movements required for walking. You can walk on the moon if your suit is flexible enough to walk in. 1/6th g is enough to keep you on the surface if you don't deliberately bounce along.

 

[PaulCa]

I thought I seen it tested that in low gravity the bouncing canter was the natural tendency anyway.

 

[Angilion]

I thought I seen it tested that in low gravity the bouncing canter was the natural tendency anyway.

Not according to the testing done by NASA, apparently.

https://www.space.com/27285-astronauts-moon-walking-speed-spacesuits.html

The bouncing skipping movement was preferred by the lunar astronauts (who tested a few methods while they were there), but of course that was done in the suits they had.

 

[div0]

• Two 100 lb tanks of oxygen
• 20 liters of water

• Food concentrate

• First aid kit, including injection needle

• Stellar map

• 50 feet of nylon rope

• parachute silk

• Once case of dehydrated milk

• Self-inflating lift raft

• Portable heating unit

• Signal flares

• Solar-powered FM receiver-transmitter

• Box of matches

• Two .45 calibre pistols

• Magnetic compass