Classroom Questions

Questions for ‘Forget moon walking, lunar visitors. Try horizontal running’

In this gif, a man in a white shirt and hat is running along the interior wall of a wooden cylinder in an attempt to emulate low-gravity exercise on the moon.

Exercise physiologist Gaspare Pavei races around the interior of the Wall of Death. His sprint generated enough centrifugal force to keep him on the wall. One day, this type of exercise might preserve bone and muscle strength in people living on the moon.

Alberto Minetti Lab

By Science News Explores

To accompany ‘Forget moon walking, lunar visitors. Try horizontal running‘

SCIENCE

Before Reading:

  1. Regular exercise helps in ways beyond keeping our muscles strong and hearts healthy. Without regular weight-bearing activity, for example, our bones can weaken as our bodies rob minerals from them to use elsewhere. That’s one reason astronauts in space must spend two or more hours each day exercising. In a microgravity environment, why might it be extra-important to incorporate exercise into your daily routine?
  2. List five examples of exercise equipment you might find in a gym. (Hint: Consider both simple and mechanized equipment.) Now imagine that you are an astronaut on the moon trying to use each piece of equipment. How might the low lunar gravity make some exercise equipment less effective to use than on Earth? Explain your answer using one specific type of exercise equipment as an example.

During Reading:

  1. What is the Wall of Death?
  2. In what country was the Wall of Death used for space-related research?
  3. What does Alberto Minetti hope to someday provide to future lunar inhabitants with this research?
  4. Contrast the gravity on the moon to that on Earth.
  5. What unit do scientists use to describe gravitational force? Use this unit to describe the gravity on Earth’s surface.
  6. How much force do researchers estimate that Gaspare Pavei and Valentina Natalucci generated during their test sprints?
  7. Based on this study, approximately how fast must moon runners sprint to achieve an effect that mimics Earth’s gravity? Give your answer in units expressed as meters per second.

After Reading:

  1. What is centrifugal force? Describe three ways that you have experienced centrifugal force in your life. (Hint: Consider amusement park rides, vehicles or something else that puts you into motion.) What is another way humans have made practical use of centrifugal force beyond what is described in this story?
  2. Beyond exercise, what are other ways that the gravity-mimicking equipment described in this story could help future space explorers? Describe two potential applications. For each, explain how using this equipment would improve some area of a space voyager’s life.