Sports and games in space!!!

[ThirdHorseman]

So I've been watching a bit of the Olympics, and I also just re-watched the Battle School scenes from Ender's Game (bad movie, awesome visuals), so I started to think about what sports and games would be like in an low/micro-gravity habitat...either in orbit or on the Moon.

For most of these sports I would assume a spherical arena, but a cube would be fine I think. Fitness is a very important thing in low-gravity environments, so the more energetic the better. Most of these sports would be inside the habitat, since watching people compete in big spacesuits wouldn't be too fun and would be very dangerous!

The first thing that comes to mind would be a variation on rugby/soccer/football. Two teams on either side of the arena, and the goal is a hole in the opposite wall. Not sure if you could integrate American football rules like individual downs and yardage, and what would constitute a tackle unless you went with something like flag football. It would probably be timed play, rather than individual downs, with control of the ball passing back-and-forth as it is intercepted or wrestled from an opposing player. More like Association football or lacrosse. If the goal was large enough you could have a goalie, or it could be a smaller hole with no defender. A lot would depend on the level of violence in the game as well. If players are allowed to push off the walls, or groups of players can impart their momentum to the ball carrier, I could imagine the speed of travel could get pretty high and players impacting on other players could be brutal so a good level of protection would be required.

I can also imagine that games of dodgeball would be quite fun in a low-gravity environment. The existing rules would be just fine, except for the opening moves. You couldn't have the balls sitting in the middle of the arena, while players dash to grab them. I would change this to include some kind of system where the game balls are injected into the arena in random directions from random locations. Either that, or just let each team start with a number of balls. I like the idea of balls being shot into the game arena, because this adds an element of tactics. Do you push off the wall and go for that ball? What if you miscalculate the balls trajectory and end up in the open without any defense? This could be an enormous amount of fun! You could even vary the rules a bit. In normal dodgeball the ball is "dead" when it hits the ground. You could have certain surfaces, such as the rear wall of a cube arena, keep the ball live, so bouncing the ball off of walls to hit players could be a valid tactic.

A version of tennis might be interesting, played in a cube. The point would be to hit your opponents rear wall with the ball, that being scored a point. This could get pretty acrobatic, with players pushing and bouncing off walls to try and intercept the ball with their racket. It would be more like a 3D version of air hockey.

Straight out of Ender's Game, I could imagine paintball competitions being pretty interesting. A large spherical arena with anchored obstacles would be pretty amazing to battle in. Having watched some paintball competitions on TV I would change things up a little. I would opt for precision of fire, rather than the current method of rapid-fire. Slow-firing weapons would make the game more slow-paced and tactical, valuing position and teamwork and using the full 3D environment to your advantage.

There are plenty of sports that I don't see as practical in this kind of environment. Golf wouldn't work, or baseball or hockey. I don't see anything involving distance as being practical, either. I mean, could you imagine a shotput or javelin competition on the Moon?

Not sure how racing sports would work, either. What's a 100yard dash when all the racers just push off a wall? Maybe pulling themselves along with handrails? I'm also not sure how fighting sports would work. How would you pin your opponent in wrestling? And I can't imagine Judo or any of the martial arts being very practical, although you might have some interesting MMA fights in low gravity.

So what do you all think? Any sports that you would like to see in a space or Moon habitat?

[Scotius]

Darts in microgravity could be awesome. Also archery on the Moon - heck, every sport requiring tossing or lifting something would be fun. Also gymnastics in low-g environment would be stunning to watch.

[Seret]

An astronaut once told me they play water-blob soccer. The goal is the other person's face, the ball is a blob of water, and you move it by blowing.

[Joshington]

Someone played golf on the moon before. I'm pretty sure they lost the ball.

[Dispatcher]

I suppose that cow pie tossing contests would be frowned upon?

[Flymetothemun]

An astronaut once told me they play water-blob soccer. The goal is the other person's face, the ball is a blob of water, and you move it by blowing.

Just saying, but if the goal is to hit the other person, wouldn't it be called dodgeball?

[ThirdHorseman]

Darts in microgravity could be awesome. Also archery on the Moon - heck, every sport requiring tossing or lifting something would be fun. Also gymnastics in low-g environment would be stunning to watch.

I don't see how any kind of projectile sport would be interesting. Darts, archery, shooting...you are trying to be accurate despite things like wind interference and the pull of gravity...neither of which you have to worry about in a low-g environment. You throw a dart and it flies perfectly straight, I don't see how that is challenging. And how can tossing stuff be challenging? In a small orbital habitat you won't have the space required to get good distances, and in the low gravity even a small child can get a discus to escape velocity!

Same goes for gymnastics, and other acrobatic sports such as trampoline, or skateboarding/snowboarding, or diving. The point of those sports is the physical skill and strength required to do the required moves before gravity slams you into the ground/mat/snow/water. If you can just float in the air and spin around and around and around I don't see how that is challenging in any way.

Perhaps if you were in a small sphere or cube, and you were bouncing from wall-to-wall and doing acrobatic moves along the way. That might be interesting. But there doesn't seem to be any real challenge to it...

[ThirdHorseman]

I suppose that cow pie tossing contests would be frowned upon?

Not very challenging in a low-gravity environment. The biggest challenge will be finding cows...

[sal_vager]

I think it was in one of Arthur C Clarkes book where there was a race by foot on the Moon, turned into a heat loss via conductive soles story, made me wonder where was Nike during this time

[ThirdHorseman]

Someone played golf on the moon before. I'm pretty sure they lost the ball.

Alan Shepard hit two golf balls, and they flew a loooooong way. Again, not very challenging. And watching a bunch of people bob around on the surface of the Moon in spacesuits, swinging awkwardly at a little white ball, and trying to get it in a hole several miles away....just doesn't do it for me!

[ThirdHorseman]

An astronaut once told me they play water-blob soccer. The goal is the other person's face, the ball is a blob of water, and you move it by blowing.

There are some studies that talk about swimming in a low-g environment, where you would float amongst large blobs of water, dipping into one whenever you wanted. You could still swim, since your movements would be resisted by the water. But there is no buoyancy and no way to tell which way is up, so it would be incredibly easy to drown while suspended in a blob of water!

[ThirdHorseman]

I think it was in one of Arthur C Clarkes book where there was a race by foot on the Moon, turned into a heat loss via conductive soles story, made me wonder where was Nike during this time

I think a kind of adventure race might be viable on the surface. Having to race as a team from one place on the Moon to another, having to setup small mini-shelters to survive the night, managing heat, etc would be incredibly dangerous but could possibly be designed. There wouldn't be any orienteering challenge, though. Most adventure races are difficult because of the varying terrain (going from mountain to forest to river) and the orienteering difficulties (finding your way through dense trees/brush) but I guess if the route was circuitous enough (have to go from crater to crater to crater in a zig-zag route) then it might be quite difficult...

[Kruleworld]

Not sure if you could integrate American football rules like individual downs and yardage, and what would constitute a tackle unless you went with something like flag football.

it'd probably be more like basketball, without the dribbling and water polo (eg throwing the ball to each team member to pass it forward).

[Dispatcher]

Not very challenging in a low-gravity environment. The biggest challenge will be finding cows...

Well, there is the story wherein "the cow jumped over the Moon".

[Streetwind]

I think a kind of adventure race might be viable on the surface. Having to race as a team from one place on the Moon to another, having to setup small mini-shelters to survive the night, managing heat, etc would be incredibly dangerous but could possibly be designed. There wouldn't be any orienteering challenge, though. Most adventure races are difficult because of the varying terrain (going from mountain to forest to river) and the orienteering difficulties (finding your way through dense trees/brush) but I guess if the route was circuitous enough (have to go from crater to crater to crater in a zig-zag route) then it might be quite difficult...

Another thing that makes a low-g footrace interesting from an atheltics perspective is the treacherous difference between mass and weight. On the moon, you only weigh one sixth of what you do on earth; but your mass as a whole - and thus your inertia - remains the same. It would be incredibly easy to propel yourself to very fast running speeds (limits of your pressure suit permitting, unless it happens in a pressurized indoors environment), but the impact of your legs on the ground would grow to higher proportions than what we experience on earth. This would also be dramatically amplified by uneven terrain. If you think that less gravity means you won't tire as quickly, think again. Also, it becomes a game of figuring out how much you can push yourself - how fast you can go before you risk injuring your ankles or breaking a leg the next time you hit a bump or the track slopes up. Especially since low-g environments promote the weakening of bones and muscles.

[ThirdHorseman]

it'd probably be more like basketball, without the dribbling and water polo (eg throwing the ball to each team member to pass it forward).

Yea I hadn't thought of water polo. I watched a few matches on YouTube and I could easily see ways to adapt it to a three dimensional low-g environment. I was thinking handball too, but that (like basketball) has a dribbling aspect that wouldn't work in a low-g arena.

Lacrosse would make a good low-g sport too, since like water polo you don't need to dribble.

I think it would be important to have obstacles/perches suspended in the arena as well, to allow rapid direction and velocity changes. You can certainly rely on teammates to push each other in different directions, but being able to hold a ball in one hand and, with the other, grab a handrail and spin around would be quite the skill.

[ThirdHorseman]

Another thing to take into consideration is the frequent cleaning that the arena will require. The players are going to get nice and sweaty, and you can be damn sure that after several minutes of play there are going to be sweat droplets floating all over the place. All players will probably want to wear face shields with their helmets, to avoid getting splashed in the face.

The audience will no doubt be behind plexiglass windows, rather than being in the arena itself, to avoid getting splattered...also to prevent anything from entering the field of play and interfering with the game.

[KerbMav]

Quidditch with CO2-propelled broom sticks.

A version of tennis might be interesting, played in a cube. The point would be to hit your opponents rear wall with the ball, that being scored a point. This could get pretty acrobatic, with players pushing and bouncing off walls to try and intercept the ball with their racket. It would be more like a 3D version of air hockey.

You mean like Squash?

I'm also not sure how fighting sports would work. How would you pin your opponent in wrestling? And I can't imagine Judo or any of the martial arts being very practical, although you might have some interesting MMA fights in low gravity.

I can imagine JudoJiu Jitsu in zero-g quite well, actually. Taking the opponent into a lock or choke to subdue him, positioning yourself to hit the wall with the opponents back ...

Darts in microgravity could be awesome. Also archery on the Moon - heck, every sport requiring tossing or lifting something would be fun. Also gymnastics in low-g environment would be stunning to watch.

I don't see how any kind of projectile sport would be interesting. Darts, archery, shooting...you are trying to be accurate despite things like wind interference and the pull of gravity...neither of which you have to worry about in a low-g environment. You throw a dart and it flies perfectly straight, I don't see how that is challenging. And how can tossing stuff be challenging?

The guys from Mythbusters had a series with astronauts from the ISS, in one episode they built "darts" (with materials available on the ISS) that flew straight and stuck to a board. The challenge was different but still there.

Same goes for gymnastics, and other acrobatic sports such as trampoline, or skateboarding/snowboarding, or diving. The point of those sports is the physical skill and strength required to do the required moves before gravity slams you into the ground/mat/snow/water. If you can just float in the air and spin around and around and around I don't see how that is challenging in any way.

Could bring some fresh wind into "synchronized swimming" though ...

Alan Shepard hit two golf balls, and they flew a loooooong way. Again, not very challenging. And watching a bunch of people bob around on the surface of the Moon in spacesuits, swinging awkwardly at a little white ball, and trying to get it in a hole several miles away....just doesn't do it for me!

I think it would do for the same people who are into real golf too ...

On the moon, you only weigh one sixth of what you do on earth; but your mass as a whole - and thus your inertia - remains the same. It would be incredibly easy to propel yourself to very fast running speeds (limits of your pressure suit permitting, unless it happens in a pressurized indoors environment), but the impact of your legs on the ground would grow to higher proportions than what we experience on earth. This would also be dramatically amplified by uneven terrain. If you think that less gravity means you won't tire as quickly, think again. Also, it becomes a game of figuring out how much you can push yourself - how fast you can go before you risk injuring your ankles or breaking a leg the next time you hit a bump or the track slopes up. Especially since low-g environments promote the weakening of bones and muscles.

Which seems to make it a mandatory daily exercise on low-g worlds?

Another thing to take into consideration is the frequent cleaning that the arena will require. The players are going to get nice and sweaty, and you can be damn sure that after several minutes of play there are going to be sweat droplets floating all over the place. All players will probably want to wear face shields with their helmets, to avoid getting splashed in the face.

The audience will no doubt be behind plexiglass windows, rather than being in the arena itself, to avoid getting splattered...also to prevent anything from entering the field of play and interfering with the game.

The helmet would pose a threat of its own, as you could not wipe your face easily - sweat not running down, sticking to your face and building up, starting to block you eyes and fill your nostrils.

Remember the astronaut with the faulty water tube in his helmet?

Same goes for the diving through floating water bubbles (without diving gear at least).

But this is actually a very interesting question, how do astronauts on the ISS deal with sweating during their exercises?