Running on the wall will help people on the moon avoid health problems
Muscle atrophy, demineralization of bone tissue, respiratory disorders - all this is the result of prolonged exposure to low gravity, which will face the future colonizers of the Moon. However, such health problems can be avoided if you do a special exercise, Italian scientists have found out. In the past, it liked to perform many motovirtuosi.
Researchers have long proved that low gravity has a detrimental effect on human health: there is a redistribution of fluid in the body, which affects the cardiovascular system, reduces the mineral density of bone tissue, increases the risk of fractures and kidney stones.
On the Moon, the gravitational force is less than the Earth's gravity by about six times. So, there may be problems with the health of future colonizers, aimed at staying on the surface of our satellite for a long time. According to current estimates, for two years in weightlessness of human bone mass can fall by up to 20 percent, and such a loss is considered deadly.
Over the past few decades, experts have been trying to develop an optimal system to counteract lunar gravity. Among the countermeasures offered physical exercises for individual muscle groups like running or sports walking. But a little later it turned out that for people on the surface of the satellite of our planet such exercises will be ineffective.
A team of Italian pathophysiologists led by Alberto Minetti (Alberto Minetti) from the University of Milan found a way to combat the detrimental health effects of the lunar environment. Scientists have selected a physical exercise that allows you to feel the usual for the body gravity on the moon. When performing it, a person involves all muscle groups. The results of scientific work published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
Scientists borrowed this exercise from stunt motorcyclists. It is about motorcycle racing on a vertical wall, or attraction "wall of death", when a motorcyclist at high speed rushes on the inner vertical surface of the barrel-shaped cylinder.
Stunt riders do not slip off the vertical wall due to a combination of two factors: friction and centrifugal force. Scientifically speaking, Newton's second law works: "the acceleration of a body (material point) in an inertial frame of reference is directly proportional to the force applied to it and inversely proportional to the mass".
As for the runners, on Earth they will not be able to perform such an exercise - it is necessary to develop a sufficiently high speed, which they can not do. Minetti and his colleagues decided to check whether it is possible to reproduce this ride in conditions reminiscent of the conditions on the Moon, but only with the participation of not a motorcycle, and a man.
For the experiment, the researchers rented a "wall of death" in an amusement park with a diameter of about 9.7 meters and a height of five meters, and hired two stuntmen. The scientists tied each stuntman with a rubber bungee cord, which they then attached to a telescopic crane at a height of 36 meters (the scientists specially removed the circus dome for this purpose). By doing so, the researchers wanted to "unload" the subjects suspended on the cords and make them 83 percent lighter, which is equivalent to their weight on the moon. That is, the Italian pathophysiologists simulated lunar gravity.
Under these conditions, the two stuntmen were able to run several laps around a vertical wall at a speed of about six meters per second.
The force experienced by the volunteers when they came in contact with the wall was comparable in magnitude to the force of gravity on Earth. In other words, when the experiment participants ran horizontally on a vertical wall, a kind of artificial gravity appeared.
According to the authors of the study, on the Moon this force would be enough to counteract low gravity and stimulate the proper functioning of all human systems, including the musculoskeletal system.
"It would be enough for colonizers to engage in this exercise twice a day for a few minutes at a time, resulting in reversing the decline in bone mineral density and bringing the cardiovascular system back to normal," Minetti explained.
The scientist noted that on the Moon "wall of death" could be placed in the round living quarters, make them an integral part of the construction. This would allow colonizers to conduct daily workouts without neglecting all amenities. Such exercise, according to the authors of the study, among other things, will help astronauts prepare for their return to Earth.