How to go out for a walk in microgravity?
Suppose that humanity has spread out through space. Humans are exploring all kinds of environments, including some with gravity much weaker than our Moon's:
- Ceres (surface gravity $=0.28 m/s^2$)
- Enceladus (surface gravity $=0.113 m/s^2$)
- Phobos (surface gravity $=0.0057m/s^2$)
- Atlas (surface gravity $=0.0002m/s^2$)
Bases are built on such places, and they get populated.
Regular walking in such gravity ranges becomes impractical. Kerbal Space Program has a body with a surface gravity of $0.049m/s^2$ (which is close to Phobos's), and the wiki has this to say about it:
It is very impractical to walk on Gilly; each step will launch a Kerbal several meters into the air. A Kerbal can jump over 200 meters on this moon and will usually take more than 4 minutes to return to the surface. This makes jetpacks a necessity to move around the moon practically.
I find the constant use of jetpacks on a daily basis awesome but wasteful. You would also be in trouble once you ran out of fuel.
I also know that magnetic shoes could be a solution while inside a building, but I'd like my space civilization to walk outdoors too.
What would be a practical solution if people wanted to go for a low gravity hike?
I am aware of Alternative for magnetic boots, but I am open to alternatives that do not involve gripping boots. I think that if someone depended on gripping for that, stepping on a loose rock would be quite troublesome.
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2 answers
Your question related to staying down in microgravity. Without a gravity field generator or something the answer is to increase the mass.
While this is not ideal from an inertia point of view it will keep you closer to the planet.
You could have concrete boots, a walking frame or jump into a fluid filled hamster ball.
Sort of like the Flintstones car.
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Set up walking paths equipped with rails.
It could look something like a walker, possibly with straps to hold you down, and tied into a rail system. Each time you take a step the walker and straps will keep you from bouncing away, and instead that energy will be used to push the walker forward.
The walkers wheels would work something like the ones on a roller coaster; you would have wheels on the top and bottom of the rail, so that when you push off the cart wouldn't just fly away with you.
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