Playing boules... IN SPACE!

Boules is a range of relative games played with small, heavy steel balls thrown on a court, such as the French Petanque and Italian Bocce.

While there is variation between games in terms of how and why you thrown, and what the size of the court is, they all rely on the distinctly Earth-bound fact that thrown balls will eventually come to a stop at fixed relative positions on the ground.

Now, suppose that we want to play on a space station, in zero gravity. There is no "ground". Can we devise a boules-like game, ideally similar to Petanque (i.e., everyone plays from the same position, the court need not be specially prepared, at least two dimensions of court are exploited, points are scored by some measure of proximity to a target) playable in a space where you can't rely on gravity to keep your thrown balls in place?

posted over 4 years ago

Logan R. Kearsley‭

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