Falling in low-G.

Forum: Spacesettlers
Thread: Falling in low-G.

# 7934 byxenophile2002@... on May 24, 2006, 7:51 p.m.
Member since 2021-10-03

I asked about this low-G terminal velocity stuff before, as I had this
idea of a 'Jackie Chan on the Moon' thing. The idea was that he would
find himself at the inside top of a huge dome on the Moon. He would
simply let go and fall the 1000 metres to the swimming pool. We all
know that Chan can fall 10 metres and more into water and climb out
wet but unharmed. Thus on the Moon he could easily manage 60 metres.
But a thousand? Well, I was going with the idea that terminal
velocity would only be about 20 MPH on the Moon, so it'd be fine. And
it would look cool.

I was told it wouldn't work. Told that terminal velocity is
determined by the thinkness of the air. So Chan would have to fall
six times as far to get up to 120 MPH, but he would. So he'd splat.

However, a scene from Arthur C. Clarke's "Rendezvous With Rama"
suggests that terminal velocity *is* less if gravity is lower. Clarke
is a pretty sharp guy, and this sort of thing is, well, his sort of thing.

So I'm going to ask again. I'm even going to post a link to a post
about this same sort of thing on a group dedicated to the Barsoom
stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs. If Rick is wrong, it looks like
Clarke is too. Of course, Clarke can be wrong, I suppose, but...