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Lunar Sports and Activities


CastleKSide

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I got into a train of thought the other day where I started speculating on what kind of things would become popular on a lunar resort. I decided to create this thread to see what kind of wacky ideas this community can come up with. Anything that might be possible within the next 20 years is the aim, so try to keep to known science. (no Antigrav Olympics guys) Assume we can create pressurized domes of say stadium size and have mastered life support for such structures as well as a decent suit for extra-habitat activity. If you are having trouble thinking of ideas, just consider how 16.6% gravity would affect your favorite pastime/interest... And what kind of new things would be possible? I'm also considering energy is rather cheap, ie large solar fields/nuclear plants etc,  however, feel free to contest that. Enjoy!

 

So here is my starter idea: Magnetic skiing! In a low gravity environment, would it be possible to cover a slope with electromagnets and then ski/board down on carefully crafted equipment with opposite polarity? I was thinking you could arrange both north and south pole magnets on the bottom of your skis with varying field strengths so you would be able to levitate but still have a bit of a grip. Anybody willing to run the math on what you would need?

 

Other promising ideas to consider: Wingsuiting, water jet riding.

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Basketball with 10m high hoops. Closed-court soccer, playing rebounds off walls and ceilings.

My favorite idea for near-term would involve launching a score of cheap, reasonably fast, self-righting tele-operated rovers, for the express purpose of renting them out to Earth-bound drivers for the Lunar Racing League. You'd buy the use of a rover for a race, with a maximum time limit of course. The low gravity and time lag would add their own wrinkles. Top 3 would get a discount for the next race, if they wish to continue. It would amount to the ultimate video game. For that matter, it might not be a bad idea if someone simply created a video game that mimicked this idea; properly executed, it would be impossible to tell the difference, aside from not being able to leave your own persistent personalized donuts in the 'lith.

For that matter, people may be willing to pay to remotely drive a bulldozer on the Mun Moon, creating tracks with obstacles, or actually trying to build something, once there is an oven for making MünBrix.

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Robert Heinlein published a story called "The Red Menace from Earth" (title menace is an Earthling redhead starlet hanging around the narrator's boyfriend).  Most of the story centered around recreational Lunar flying (Icarus style, presumably possible under low gravity).  No idea how the math works: I'm sure a gymnast could do it but larger types might not.  Lunar golf has been tried, and it appears that the 1km/s needed to get the ball into orbit is impossible even with a perfect (non-restricting) spacesuit.

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An pool would be fun, for one you could run on water, with fins you could also leap clear of the water dolphin style. 
An sort of jungle gym would be obvious add trampolines for more fun.
 
Most ball sports would probably be frustrating, yes you will have an golf course outside just for the bucket list.
However american football or other games there you hold on to the ball most of the time would be hilarious as people crash into each other and bounce off. 

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3 minutes ago, wumpus said:

Robert Heinlein published a story called "The Red Menace from Earth" (title menace is an Earthling redhead starlet hanging around the narrator's boyfriend).  Most of the story centered around recreational Lunar flying (Icarus style, presumably possible under low gravity).  No idea how the math works: I'm sure a gymnast could do it but larger types might not.  Lunar golf has been tried, and it appears that the 1km/s needed to get the ball into orbit is impossible even with a perfect (non-restricting) spacesuit.

Flying should be plausible and yes its the most obvious one, you would need something more elaborate than an wing suit but your arms has power enough for it. 
 

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Diving
From 70(12 * 6) m altitude.

Spoiler

N657815313_2283069_8370.jpg

Try to not miss the pool.

Archery
540(90*6) m range.

Skeet shooting.
Under the glass dome. Motivation to win +10.
Though can be combined with 70 m diving.

Slowpoke slalom
Giant slalom for slowpokes. Speeds are 6 times lesser than on the Earth.

Wrestling
Jumps are 6 times higher, box is 6 times wider.
Fatalities in mid-air.

Horizontal carousel.
Just to reach 1 g gravity.

Boomerang throwing.
Just boomerang throwing.

Beach volleyball
On regolith. In spacesuits.

 

6 hours ago, magnemoe said:

An pool would be fun, for one you could run on water, with fins you could also leap clear of the water dolphin style. 

With Passengers-like waves. Low gravity doesn't flatten them too quickly.

Spoiler

ZG0330_final.jpg

 

Edited by kerbiloid
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On 3/11/2018 at 12:27 AM, kerbiloid said:

Beach volleyball

 

On regolith. In spacesuits.

It would have to be more like indoor (6+ player teams).  Jumping, blocking, spiking, and serving would all be great (forget flat [knuckleball] serves and go with high-topspin jump serves).  Defense would have to dig the way I used to: be where the ball is coming and let it bounce off of you.  Nobody is making fast moves to dig a volleyball: that uN friction limit will stop you (even if they replaced the regolith with a high friction surface).

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How tall are the biggest slopes on the Moon?

Because Im up for some lunar skiing.

The powdery regolith sounds like it would make for some good skiing, as long as your skis were durable enough.

You'd take a long time to build up speed, but due to the lack of air resistance, top speeds would be much increased!

***

Just did a little googling and the tallest "mountains" are on the order of 5km base-to-peak! Thats plenty of skiing! (and plenty of distance to build up some speed)

The idea of falling onto rocks at 100mph in a spacesuit does make my stomach wobble a little.

 

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2 hours ago, James Kerman said:

RCS Quidditch.

Or while flying around Icarus style.  Just lose the seeker, it only made sense as a Macguffin.

2 hours ago, p1t1o said:

How tall are the biggest slopes on the Moon?

Because Im up for some lunar skiing.

The powdery regolith sounds like it would make for some good skiing, as long as your skis were durable enough.

You'd take a long time to build up speed, but due to the lack of air resistance, top speeds would be much increased!

***

Just did a little googling and the tallest "mountains" are on the order of 5km base-to-peak! Thats plenty of skiing! (and plenty of distance to build up some speed)

The idea of falling onto rocks at 100mph in a spacesuit does make my stomach wobble a little.

 

From yet another RAH lunar story (involving a boy trying to a Earth triple Earth-Moon-Mars* Eagle scout.
Q: What's the first aid for a broken visor (or other bits of the helmet)?
A: You bury them
- Not sure if Mars was the "other Eagle" or not.  Might have been Venus (presumably from before 1967).
- Don't remember any RAH in Boy's Life (US boy scout publication) in the 1980s.  Plenty of Asimov, even though RAH wrote great scouting stuff.  Presumably his weird sex stuff got him censored.

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Lawn (regolith) darts.

21-pin bowling?

I wonder if any ice-based sports would work.  Skating rink in low-g?  Hockey would be great, but back to sports where you can do them with a drink in your hand, give me curling anytime.

cable-toss (or small-people-toss).  Actually, maybe we could switch that up: small people tossing the big ones!

Long distance axe throwing

pole vault would be completely awesome

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A couple of sports I would not recommend on the moon (OK more than a couple)

Pole vaulting. (Space suit might not survive, impractical, literally your gear would be everything and skill nothing)
Long jumping. (same)
Baseball. (Cause no-one would want to be an outfielder).
Field Hockey/Polo.
Water Polo. (Cause literally the water would freeze under adiabatic cooling.)
Base diving. (cause there are no bases and diving without oxygen is simply falling)
Cliff diving.(cause water is frozen on the moon until it sublimates).
Synchronize swimming.(same reason,indoor no problem).
Fishing.(Like duh).
Spear fishing (double like duh.)
Duck hunting (Oh the list of reasons on this one).
America's cup (same)
Indoor sports that would not be practical (pool diving, think everyone in the stands would get wet)>
Ski-jumping.
Half pipe.
Just remember that for arena sports, because of the differential pressure and high velocity impactors, arenas of Astrodome size would be immensely more difficult to build, even underground they would be challenging.

 

Outdoor Sports that might work on the moon.-

-Off road racing
-motor cross (get your life insurance).
-giant robot wars.
-Spelunking. (with the assistence of robots)
-hiking

Propose new sport

Big ball racing. With Carbon-fiber technology it is possible to build a light weight sphere that one could dock to a ship and crawl inside. Once inside and undocked one could race others inside the sphere. It would have to be double walled but thats one outdoor sport one would not have to wear a space suit.

But exposure would have to be brief, can be reduced during the 15 day lunar night (problem is ball would shrink due to the extremely low temperature.
 

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1 minute ago, kerbiloid said:

There is no wind on the Moon.
 

  Hide contents

... except waving the flag in Apollo chronicles.

 

There are no kilts, scotsman, logpoles, or contest, either. So if all these things appear, then there could be wind.

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6 minutes ago, PB666 said:

So if all these things appear, then there could be wind.

If there will be wind, there will be land yachts.

6 minutes ago, PB666 said:

There are no

 

6 minutes ago, PB666 said:

scotsman

They were.

Edited by kerbiloid
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On 3/10/2018 at 6:18 PM, wumpus said:

Robert Heinlein published a story called "The Red Menace from Earth" (title menace is an Earthling redhead starlet hanging around the narrator's boyfriend).  Most of the story centered around recreational Lunar flying (Icarus style, presumably possible under low gravity).  No idea how the math works: I'm sure a gymnast could do it but larger types might not.  Lunar golf has been tried, and it appears that the 1km/s needed to get the ball into orbit is impossible even with a perfect (non-restricting) spacesuit.

I recall this story.  The flying was done in the colony's air storage silo (very large open space, pressurized to a couple atmospheres).  The combination of increased air pressure/density and low gravity allowed a human to fly with wings that mimicked a bird's functions (flex, alear movements, flapped with pecs and/or delts).  A heater, needed to keep the air at a comfortable temperature (the Moon rock being cold once well below the surface effect of sunlight), provided an immense thermal that helped the less physically fit (including those born/raised in the Moon) climb more easily.

For those who don't mind a little risk, even though you couldn't hit a golf ball into orbit, making a rifle that can fire a bullet all the way around the Moon isn't all that hard (as I recall, a .220 Swift, as it stands, can do it, likely a number of other cartridges).  Picture target shooting where the your bullet has to make one orbit before hitting the target.  :0.0:  Combine that with 'lith skiing, you could have a Lunar Biathlon where the contestants finish the ski trail course before their shooting can even be scored (the bullet would take more than an hour and a half to go around).  :confused:

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