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Moon

How Long Would It Take To Walk Around the Moon? (livescience.com) 68

Posted by EditorDavid from the moon-walking dept.
The moon is just 27% the size of earth. So long-time Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot shares an interesting question from Science Alert.

"If you were to hop in a spaceship, don a spacesuit and go on an epic lunar hike, how long would it take to walk all the way around it? " During the Apollo missions, astronauts bounced around the surface at a casual 1.4 mph (2.2 km/h), according to NASA. This slow speed was mainly due to their clunky, pressurized spacesuits that were not designed with mobility in mind. If the "moonwalkers" had sported sleeker suits, they might have found it a lot easier to move and, as a result, picked up the pace...

At this new hypothetical max speed, it would take about 91 days to walk the 6,786-mile (10,921 km) circumference of the moon. For context, it would take around 334 days to walk nonstop (i.e., not stopping to sleep or eat) around the 24,901-mile (40,075 km) circumference of Earth at this speed, although it is impossible to do so because of the oceans.

Obviously, it's not possible to walk nonstop for 91 days, so the actual walk around the moon would take much longer.
Of course, it's not that easy, with ongoing solar radiation, extreme temperatures, and the need to walk around mile-deep craters. Aidan Cowley, a scientific adviser at the European Space Agency, also pointed out to Live Science that you'd need a support vehicle following you with food, water, and oxygen (which could also double as shelter, "kind of like portable mini-bases."). But he also identified another issue: This type of mission would also require a huge amount of endurance training because of the demands of exercising in low gravity on your muscles and cardiovascular system. "You'd have to send an astronaut with ultra-marathon-level fitness to do it," Cowley said. Even then, walking at a top speed would be possible only for around three to four hours a day, Cowley said. So, if a person walked at 3.1 mph (5 km/h) for 4 hours a day, then it would take an estimated 547 days, or nearly 1.5 years to walk the moon's circumference, assuming your route isn't too disrupted by craters and you can deal with the temperature changes and radiation.

However, humans won't have the technology or equipment to accomplish such a feat until at least the late 2030s or early 2040s, Cowley said. "You'd never get an agency to support anything like this," Cowley said. "But if some crazy billionaire wants to try it, maybe they can pull it off."
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How Long Would It Take To Walk Around the Moon? More

How Long Would It Take To Walk Around the Moon?

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  • The stupidity is breathtaking (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 04, 2021 @01:50PM (#61235922)

    Of this article I mean.

    • Oh, I don't know that I agree with that. I think the idea needs to be developed further and some significant testing done.

      I propose we send several hundred Influencers (from YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, etc.) to the moon in furtherance of that goal. I'd argue, for maximum testing value, they each be required to develop their own support system and space suits. I'd be willing to support the crowdfunding of the spaceship needed to get them there, though.

    • The article taught me how the division operator works (time = distance / speed). I never knew this stuff. Whatâ(TM)s going to be next week's article? Multiplication?
  • a la:

    While a bullet fired under lunar gravity would still eventually plow into the lunar soil

    https://www.popularmechanics.c... [popularmechanics.com] How far could a bullet fired on the moon curve over the horizon?
    moon escape velocity is 2.37 km/s
    m16 muzzle velocity is: 3,150 ft/s (960 m/s)

  • Mapping CA on the moon's surface... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mspring ( 126862 ) on Sunday April 04, 2021 @01:57PM (#61235960)
    ...to get a sense of its size I did once using GoogleEarth: https://imgur.com/u6zjNwr [imgur.com]
  • Given the lack of drag, low gravity, and assuming full range of motion couldn't a person build up and maintain speeds that would be entirely unreasonable on earth.

    • With 1/6 gravity, no air resistance, and assuming no suit limitations, I would think running speeds on the order of 30 mph should be achievable. The biggest limit would be the ability of a person to move quickly and stably over rough terrain. The moon is quite mountainous.

      • I recall a TV program talking about walking on the moon. It is harder than you think. The astronauts found it was easier to lope, or skip rather than walk. In training they found they could move very quickly. I don't know how this might translate to running, but like you i would think that an athletic person could achieve some impressive speeds after a reasonably short period of practice and training in 1/6th gravity.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DrXym ( 126579 )
      They could certainly launch themselves in big hops but that might be cheating.

    • The fastest practical method of locomotion in humans was not addressed in the research piece, they were examining walking speeds only - which is defined by the type of gait adopted. Their finding was that the fastest walking speed on the Moon is slower than the fastest walking speed on Earth - 3.1 MPH vs 4.5 MPH (I have timed myself and found that with a forced fast walk I do about 4 MPH).

      On the Moon to go faster than that you must adopt a slow run gait. But it may be correct that a kangaroo hop might be fa

  • Rather than just walking around the moon, I want to see someone re-make The Wizard of Speed and Time [youtube.com] all filmed going around the moon.

  • How long would it take you to circumnavigate Uranus?

  • We have not been able to even send someone to the moon for half a century, never mind build any infrastructure there, and there's a discussion about how to walk around the moon? With insights like "you need to send someone with ultramarathon level fitness", "you can't walk 24/7, so it will take longer than dividing circumference by theoretical speed" etc gems.
    This reminds me of the discussions I had when I was 7 year old involving superheroes or ninja turtles. Even then, we did realise we were talking about

    • Well last I checked the moon was real. More importantly it doesn't appear to be going anywhere so we can tackle the "walk around" problem anytime we feel like it. In the mean time maybe you all will learn something.

  • Solar Panels (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ghoul ( 157158 ) on Sunday April 04, 2021 @02:23PM (#61236030)
    I think there is a science fiction story about an astronaut whose ship crashes. A rescue will take 20 days but in the meantime his only source of oxygen and water is a recycler which runs on solar power. However it wont work if in the lunar night so he proceeds to walk and stay in the sun and manages to survive for 20 days by walking continuously.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by OtisSnerd ( 600854 )

      I think there is a science fiction story about an astronaut whose ship crashes. A rescue will take 20 days but in the meantime his only source of oxygen and water is a recycler which runs on solar power. However it wont work if in the lunar night so he proceeds to walk and stay in the sun and manages to survive for 20 days by walking continuously.

      Could this short story be the one you remember?

      https://www.baen.com/Chapters/... [baen.com]

  • This was a pointless article (Score:3)

    by bjoast ( 1310293 ) on Sunday April 04, 2021 @02:24PM (#61236036)
    Yes.

  • Can't think of the title, but that's one of his stories, (not on our Moon, but a similar body that has to be walked to get to safety) save that the suit is also like Iron Man's, and can do its own walking, if he can just go along. And it can recycle the air...almost perfectly. There's a tiny, steady, loss...

  • Because Giant Steps are What You Take Walking On The Moon [youtube.com].

  • Why walk? I'd check out running, or pogoing, or whatever trick makes you advance fast. It'll be bouncy sure but it is not that you are losing time while in the air?

  • I think the view is probably a lot better orbiting 10 kilometers at 1000kph, and that was actually feasible in the 70s.

  • What is the airspeed of an unladen swallow on the moon?

  • The Moon is 27% of the size of the Earth but only 3% of its mass. If you'd like there to finally be something interesting about this subject check out the Giant Impact Hypothesis. Here's a video I like to get you started: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
    • The moon has 27% of earths radius, the formula for size is 4/3 pi r^3 meaning .27 x .27 x .27 or 2% of the earths size. This is why a 1/10th scale model weighs far less than 10 times less and ball crawls have a “how many was that again” amount of balls in them.
  • Instead of walking, future travel on the moon is accomplished by catapults and piles of pillows.

  • Perhaps more interesting, and slightly more realistic, is the driving time. At US highway speed of 70 MPH it would take only 4 days to circumnavigate the moon.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Bert64 ( 520050 )

      The lunar rovers could only achieve just short of 12mph and their officially rated top speed was 8mph...
      You might face considerable problems driving at high speed on the moon, the surface is not always smooth and is often dusty, there is less gravity than earth and you'll have no downforce effect due to the lack of atmosphere.
      You'd likely have poor traction, and could easily leave the ground if you hit a bump at speed, or flip over if you tried to turn at speed.
      You'd also have to worry about cooling due to

  • "If the "moonwalkers" had sported sleeker suits"?
    Whoa, hold on there.
    Does whoever wrote that realise that the Apollo suits were the sleekest cutting-edge garments that could be created at the time?
    Up till that point all previous EVA suit prototypes were big and bulky, some even like large tin cans. It wasn't until womens' undergarment manufacturer Playtex became involved and developed the revolutionary thin-limbed suit that it even became possible, and with mobility better than the expected.
    See Part 5 '

  • Then giant steps are what you take... walking on the moon...

  • Has somebody been playing TOW a bit too long ?

  • Oxygen, water, food and power (enough solar panels, and batteries for when you get to the dark side of the moon. Even it only 1/6 G you're probably not going to be able to carry all that. you might be able to tow a trailer or sled, but it would be harder to climb the crater walls, mountains etc

  • It rumors Tesla has been awarded the contract for the LRV. Alternatives are being investigated like space tents, a trailer for the lunar rover and lunar nudie camps. Navigation remains a problem for the absence of lunar sidewalks and foot paths. Lunar gps promises to be a nice boon.

  • But it's more important to know how long it would take them to go around the moon on a pogo stick. Because, idiots.

  • NASA, and to a slightly lesser extent, its astronauts, are quite risk-averse. In more limber suits and with less concern for personal safety, they should be able to bound more or less like kangaroos in the 1/6 Earth gravity, achieving speeds in excess of Usain Bolt on Earth. At, say, 20mph average, it should only take a sixth as long as the article states. I notice there are other comments below about "kangaroo mode" as well, so I'm at least not the only crackpot here.
  • Over the past billions of years, moon rock has absorbed enough solar radiation helium-3 that one single Space-shuttle load of just 25 tons would be able to power all the electrical needs of the entire United States for a year! It's the fuel source of the future. So YES, you better believe humans will indeed be back up there collecting it... walking or otherwise!

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