Greetings,

I have an interesting question for the list. When people think about
a space colony they picture a dome or box on a planet or if they are
a little better educated, they picture a large O'Neill type
structure (sorry, I had to say it that way, the planet bound are
educated, just brainwashed :-), now in a large rotating structure
you will have some odd conditions from the rotation, the larger the
radius the smaller the problem. But if you are in a low gravity
environment, either in a planet or moon bound location or in a low
gravity area of an orbital structure, you may have problems with
walking.

The mechanics of the simple act of walking is basically a pendulum,
our gait is dictated by the speed our centre of gravity swings back
and forth. We are a kind of pendulum but if you put the pendulum
into a lower gravity, you are going to have a slower swing. Without
the encumbrance of a pressure suit, you are going to try to walk
normally, on Mars, Luna or anywhere the apparent gravity is lower
than a full Earth gravity, you are going to either walk very slow or
use a different gait.

Comments?

Also has everybody seen this http://www.discover.com/issues/jul-
04/cover/

Darren Brown
Canberra Australia

From: Darren Brown [mailto:darren@...]

> The mechanics of the simple act of walking is basically a pendulum,
> our gait is dictated by the speed our centre of gravity swings back
> and forth. We are a kind of pendulum but if you put the pendulum
> into a lower gravity, you are going to have a slower swing. Without
> the encumbrance of a pressure suit, you are going to try to walk
> normally, on Mars, Luna or anywhere the apparent gravity is lower
> than a full Earth gravity, you are going to either walk very slow or
> use a different gait.
>
> Were there ever any studies to look into this?

Some of the Apollo astronauts did report that a kind of kangaroo hop
seemed more efficient than a normal gate. Of course results outside of
pressurized spacesuits may differ.

Regards,

Mike Combs

Darren Brown wrote:

>The mechanics of the simple act of walking is basically a pendulum,
>our gait is dictated by the speed our centre of gravity swings back
>and forth. We are a kind of pendulum but if you put the pendulum
>into a lower gravity, you are going to have a slower swing. Without
>the encumbrance of a pressure suit, you are going to try to walk
>normally, on Mars, Luna or anywhere the apparent gravity is lower
>than a full Earth gravity, you are going to either walk very slow or
>use a different gait.
>
The Lunar Base Design Workshop held at ESTEC in 2002 came up with one
solution: rather than a flat floor surface, use a wavey or ridged floor;
the walking gait would then involve pushing back horizontally, as well
as down vertically - it would be more like a runner's gait (bent
forward) than normal upright Earth walking, but should work for just
about any walking (or running) speed you want. I'm not sure if that had
been invented elsewhere before - the results of that workshop were the
first I'd heard of it anyway.

Arthur

Mike,

The bunny hop was something of a compromise, they had problems with
walking in a suit that didn't want to flex the right way due to pressure
and then there was having that mass on their backs and I believe that
they may just have had a problem with the very effect I am asking about
here, walking would have felt wrong.

Interesting.

Darren Brown
Canberra Australia

From: Combs, Mike [mailto:mikecombs@...]
Sent: Friday, August 13, 2004 12:36 AM
To: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [spacesettlers] How will we walk?

From: Darren Brown [mailto:darren@...]

> The mechanics of the simple act of walking is basically a pendulum,
> our gait is dictated by the speed our centre of gravity swings back
> and forth. We are a kind of pendulum but if you put the pendulum
> into a lower gravity, you are going to have a slower swing. Without
> the encumbrance of a pressure suit, you are going to try to walk
> normally, on Mars, Luna or anywhere the apparent gravity is lower
> than a full Earth gravity, you are going to either walk very slow or
> use a different gait.
>
> Were there ever any studies to look into this?

Some of the Apollo astronauts did report that a kind of kangaroo hop
seemed more efficient than a normal gate. Of course results outside of
pressurized spacesuits may differ.

Regards,

Mike Combs

s/S=:HM/A!64331/rand5664357>

_____

Arthur,

I like the sound of the ridged floor, of course the walking problem is
only a problem if you are walking, if you run then the problem goes
away. One other possible solution that I have given so thought to was
skipping, if you give walking a miss and skip, you would get a kind of
lope that should be efficient and rapid.

Darren Brown
Canberra Australia

From: Arthur Smith [mailto:apsmith@...]
Sent: Friday, August 13, 2004 1:04 AM
To: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [spacesettlers] How will we walk?

Darren Brown wrote:

>The mechanics of the simple act of walking is basically a pendulum,
>our gait is dictated by the speed our centre of gravity swings back
>and forth. We are a kind of pendulum but if you put the pendulum
>into a lower gravity, you are going to have a slower swing. Without
>the encumbrance of a pressure suit, you are going to try to walk
>normally, on Mars, Luna or anywhere the apparent gravity is lower
>than a full Earth gravity, you are going to either walk very slow or
>use a different gait.
>
The Lunar Base Design Workshop held at ESTEC in 2002 came up with one
solution: rather than a flat floor surface, use a wavey or ridged floor;

the walking gait would then involve pushing back horizontally, as well
as down vertically - it would be more like a runner's gait (bent
forward) than normal upright Earth walking, but should work for just
about any walking (or running) speed you want. I'm not sure if that had
been invented elsewhere before - the results of that workshop were the
first I'd heard of it anyway.

Arthur

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "Darren Brown" wrote:

> Without
> the encumbrance of a pressure suit, you are going to try to walk
> normally, on Mars, Luna or anywhere the apparent gravity is lower
> than a full Earth gravity, you are going to either walk very slow or
> use a different gait.
>
> Comments?

One nice thing about this problem is that it is pretty much possible
to find this out on the earth, by using a harness and a counterweight
to reduce your weight.