Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments
Search

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Slashdot Log In

Log In

Create Account  |  Retrieve Password

The Future of Space Sports

Posted by Soulskill on Fri Apr 25, 2008 12:55 PM
from the enemy's-gate-is-down dept.
Space Entertainment
Loether writes "Space.com has a fun article about how astronauts aboard the ISS play 'sports' in zero gravity. It talks about learning how to throw in a straight line instead of the arc we all take for granted, relay races, and using large water filled bags as medicine balls. 'We realized that you could toss and catch and then go for a ride on this big thing as it takes you away.' The astronauts also put out a request for new ideas for space sports. Have any suggestions?"
+ -
story

Related Stories

Submission: The Future of Space Sports by Loether (769074)
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

The Future of Space Sports 50 Comments More /

 Full
 Abbreviated
 Hidden
More
Loading... please wait.
  • a system for it to make it's own gravity and transporters

  • Remember (Score:4, Funny)

    by glwtta (532858) on Friday April 25 2008, @12:58PM (#23200414) Homepage
    The enemy gate is down!

  • ....mechanics of such:

    How about the horizontal mambo?

  • ...until the medicine ball full of water bursts open.

    I for one welcome our new water overlords.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by snowraver1 (1052510)
      I was thinking the same thing. I, personally, would not be playing with a water balloon near my life support system... But, that's just me.
  • Jogging around the water tanks [youtube.com] à la Skylab maybe?

  • Play A Man's Game (Score:3, Funny)

    by BigBlueOx (1201587) on Friday April 25 2008, @01:04PM (#23200488)
    Fizzbin.
    Maybe you'll be one of the few who have ever gotten a Royal Fizzbin. BTW, the odds of actually getting a Royal Fizzbin have never been computed but are known to be astronomical.

  • Zero G Arena needed, but... (Score:3, Funny)

    by GrueMaster (579195) on Friday April 25 2008, @01:04PM (#23200490)
    While the ISS may not be the best for this, how about zero G paintball? That would kick ass. ISS is relatively confined to have much in the way of sports. Zero G Racketball could get interesting, but again, need more space.
  • Nerf guns would be fun..

    Lawn Darts are probably out..
  • games, I'm going to have to suggest "zerogfindthesausage" as a good one to play.

  • Hmmm.... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Angst Badger (8636) on Friday April 25 2008, @01:07PM (#23200546)
    The astronauts also put out a request for new ideas for space sports. Have any suggestions?

    You mean other than the obvious one we all wonder about?

  • basketball (Score:4, Funny)

    by OrochimaruVoldemort (1248060) on Friday April 25 2008, @01:07PM (#23200548) Journal
    in zero g, the white guy could finally compete with the black guy (flaimbait, i'm sure)

    • Re:basketball (Score:5, Insightful)

      by iamhigh (1252742) * on Friday April 25 2008, @01:18PM (#23200742)
      Why would that be flamebait? It is merely a statement of facts. Blacks make up 12-15 percent of the population, but 90+ percent of professional athelets.

      It pisses me off to no end that we can't conlude that one race may be better at things than another (due to P.C.).

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Sciros (986030)

        professional athletes

        Depends on the sport. Hockey is predominately white, though that's largely due to regional culture (that goes for "winter sports" in general, I guess). Soccer seems to not favor the athletic tendencies of any particular race. Tiger Woods is like 100 races in one so golf's a wash. In Baseball, American Football, and Basketball there are many black athletes but it's not necessarily because of their physical advantages. Certainly the greater muscle mass, height, and high vertical jump mean a lot, especially f

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Orange Crush (934731)

        Correlation != Causation. I don't know where you're numbers come from, but the 12-15 percent of the general population figure agrees with a quick bit of Googling. Determining the demographics amongst all professional athletes is much more difficult. Are you looking at primarilly basketball and football? What about baseball, soccer, hockey, swimming, golf, equestrian sports, etc?

        We can spout off and conjecture all we like about why blacks might dominate certain professional sports--maybe it's a mix of

        • Re:basketball (Score:5, Interesting)

          by bennomatic (691188) on Friday April 25 2008, @02:44PM (#23201918) Homepage
          You're totally right on. There was a time that a significant portion of pro basketball players were Jewish, too. Was it because of cultural or economic reasons? No, of course not. Sports pundits of the time indicated that shorter men would be better at basketball because they would have greater balance and agility... A quick Google search on "jews in basketball" reveals that and other interesting statements.

  • Flying (Score:4, Interesting)

    by David Frankenstein (21337) on Friday April 25 2008, @01:07PM (#23200550)
    I read it somewhere one time. Give me some wings and Zero-G, and I can use them to 'swim' if I can push enough air around. Would be even more fun with Small-G.
  • "What about Zero-G kickboxing? Or Wimbledon?"
  • speedfloating...neither foot can touch the ground during the entire race.

  • Calvin Ball (Score:5, Funny)

    by LordSkippy (140884) on Friday April 25 2008, @01:11PM (#23200632)
    Calvin Ball!
    • You used an exclamatory sentence in the no punctuation zone, you have to hop on one foot while I peg you with this waterballon. Now, hold still dammit. Hey, where's your mask?

  • In 2006, European astronaut Christer Fugelsang, a former Swedish national Frisbee champion, kept a Frisbee aloft inside the station for 20 seconds - thanks to the lack of gravity - to break the previous world record of 16.72 seconds for a single toss.
    Isn't the whole station aloft? I'm confused.

  • Flying. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by geekoid (135745) <dadinportlandNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Friday April 25 2008, @01:13PM (#23200664) Homepage Journal
    Don't confuse Activity, competitions and sports. Sorry, I needed to gt that off my chest.

    Any ways..
    Gymnastics would be very interesting, as would wrestling.

    I suspect someone would create 'wings' that strap onto your arms to help you 'swim' around. That could be an interesting race.
  • Well, I think archery and skeet shooting are right out. I'd like to see a zero-G baseball game.

  • Two man juggling (Score:4, Interesting)

    by myxiplx (906307) on Friday April 25 2008, @01:17PM (#23200722)
    Well you can't very well juggle on your own in space, and I doubt Nasa would appreciate you bouncing balls off all the equipment, but you could probably learn to juggle 5 balls between two people.

    Of course the trick is to work out a path where the balls won't collide, and to learn the direction to throw them in, but it'd make for a great publicity video if they worked it out :D
  • I imagine it'd be pretty cool to play Hide and Seek in a 3D environment, although the hiding space options would be rather limited.

    How about setting up a CAVE-like environment for some really VR Descent [mobygames.com]?

    • I imagine it'd be pretty cool to play Hide and Seek in a 3D environment

      Er, like outside in meatspace, maybe?? I'd like to play a 1D game of Hide and Seek.... Or a proper 4D hide and seek... I know he's around here somewhere... but WHEN??

      I suppose you mean it is 3D since you can float off the ground, but you can climb up stuff in regular gravity hide and seek too.
  • Only, instead of a line of folks, you have a 2D mesh. And instead of running at the opposing team, your teammates hurl you at them.

  • Flatulence races? (Score:4, Funny)

    by bonkeydcow (1186443) on Friday April 25 2008, @01:23PM (#23200808)
    Flatulence races? Do you have enough fuel to make it across the finish line?
    • Fartracing FTW!! BRILLIANT!!! Kudos good sir.

      Sadly, without gravity, the gas in your gut doesn't separate out, so, (wait for it) "in space, nobody can hear you fart".

      Thanks, try the veal.
  • It's amazing how, even as a wee child, we learn to account for gravity in everything we do. (I know that it's an obvious statement, but ponder it). We learn to throw in arcs, we learn how things bounce, based on their elasticity or density, we learn how to throw higher/lighter, lower/harder to do different arcs, we learn how to throw things that are light vs heavy ...

    then, to have to relearn that in space. It would be an interesting study in learning and adapting to see how people learn this, then, when they return back to Gravity, how they re-adjust.

  • Ultimate (Frisbee) (Score:3, Interesting)

    by HeyBob! (111243) on Friday April 25 2008, @03:17PM (#23202368)
    I'm surprised no one's brought up Ultimate (Frisbee)
    A spinning disc has lift so th throw it to some one, you'd throw it down and it would rise to them!

    • Re:Ultimate (Frisbee) (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Chris Mattern (191822) on Friday April 25 2008, @03:55PM (#23202770)

      A spinning disc has lift


      No, it doesn't. A frisbee gets no lift from the fact that it is spinning.

      Because of its shape (it's an airfoil) it does get lift from moving forward, however. It gets *stability* from the spin, which helps maintiain the the edge-on direction of movement that gives it lift.

    • Re:Clever "Dept." (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Ironsides (739422) on Friday April 25 2008, @01:14PM (#23200676) Homepage Journal
      Speaking of which. If they want Zero G and low G sports, I suggest reading through the Science Fiction section a bit. The Enders Game battles were some of the first to pop into my mind. Then there are the human butterfly (strap wings to yourself and fly) sports on the moon from "This place has no atmosphere". There was one in the Tom Swift series that started with "The City in the Stars". I'll have to reread it to check what it was about. Some form of low G basketball if I remember right. There was another series that had a sport where you tried to get around the (quite large) station as fast as you could. You used tow ropes to pull yourself along by realing in your line by hand. A relay/sprint in zero G if you will.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by smellsofbikes (890263)
        I was thinking the same thing -- the carbon dioxide thruster games that Asimov wrote about in the Lucky Starr games, where you have a single big CO2 pressure tank with a nozzle you can aim, and your goal is to maneuver in a cubic mile of space and knock your opponent through a set of goalposts, or the (in)famous Dr. Who episode where he was stuck in space and threw a cricket ball at something, bounced it off, caught it, and knocked himself to safety. (Which they did WRONG since he would've received 1 chunk

    • First round you have to grab one jack. Second round, two. And so on.
      I'm afraid I'll need at least one more data point to start extrapolating your "And so on" with any degree of accuracy.

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2009 Geeknet, Inc.