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If we wish to colonize another world, finding a planet with a gravitational field that humans can survive and thrive under will be crucial. If its gravity is too strong our blood will be pulled down into our legs, our bones might break, and we could even be pinned helplessly to the ground.
Finding the gravitational limit of the human body is something that's better done before we land on a massive new planet. Now, in a paper published on the pre-print server arXiv, three physicists, claim that the maximum gravitational field humans could survive long-term is four-and-a-half times the gravity on Earth.
Or, at least you could if you are an Icelandic strongman – and Game of Thrones monster – who can walk with more than half a metric ton on your back. For mere mortals, the researchers say, it would need to be a little weaker.
[...] For the maximum gravity at which we could take a step, the team turned to Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, an Icelandic strongman who once walked five steps with a 1430 pound log on his back, smashing a 1,000-year-old record[*].
[*] YouTube video.
What's the Maximum Gravity We Could Survive?
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Saturday September 22 2018, @02:56PM (13 children)
Can you imagine the "humans" from such a world after 20 or so generations? They would come back to Earth and immediately take every riot cop and prison guard job available.
Yeah, for the first 20 or so generations everyone wears a robotic exoskeleton to deal with daily life. You'd have to keep the evolutionary pressure on to adapt to the environment though. I think even with exoskeletons, the massive strain on the heart, diaphragm, and circulatory system would kill quite a few people early in their life.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday September 22 2018, @03:12PM (3 children)
What makes you think there would be any such jobs available on Earth at that time?
"I think even with exoskeletons, the massive strain on the heart, diaphragm, and circulatory system would kill quite a few people early in their life."
You're correct, and only scratching the surface. Forget about things that kill. Think about things that fail to kill you, but cause agonizing pain every second of your misbegotten life. Think about joints wearing out before you hit puberty. Think about having to plan each and every movement carefully, knowing that a simple misstep, a stubbed toe on earth, would be a broken ankle or worse here. Think about how that ankle would never heal unless you stay completely off it for months. Think about how if you stay off your feet for months, then once the ankle is healed, you wouldn't have the strength left to stand up on your own.
No, this is the exact opposite of what we should do. Don't colonize high g planets. Colonize weightless spaces. Escape all of those burdens, and then adapt to freedom, not to heavier restrictions.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday September 22 2018, @03:21PM (2 children)
By the time we have the technology to go interstellar, we'll have great anti-aging and regenerative medicine. Meaning that you can fix your joints, bones, heart, etc. faster than it would take for them to wear out.
The 4.5g mentioned in TFS is atypical. 1.25g is more common for exoplanets, with maybe 2g possible although exoplanets could become Neptune-like before reaching that surface gravity. 0.5g to 1g is also possible. It will be interesting to see the health effects of 0.8g. Might be a great vacation spot.
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(Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday September 22 2018, @05:14PM
That's your assumption, but I see no proof for it. Might turn out that way, might not.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1) by ChrisMaple on Sunday September 23 2018, @05:19AM
Bones, joints, and muscles aren't a problem. People weighing twice as much as average already exist on Earth without problem; they have sturdier bodies because they've been grown and trained that way. One body system that doesn't automatically adapt is the circulatory system; human beings aren't far from the margins of what can be tolerated for blood pressure difference between the brain and the feet. Tall animals like giraffes have special evolved adaptations that required thousands of generations to appear; that's not going to happen quickly in humans without gene editing.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Saturday September 22 2018, @03:26PM (7 children)
There will be no need to wait for 20 generations before adaptation can occur.
First of all, humans won't evolve those adaptations if natural or artificial selection isn't occurring.
Second, you can just use gene editing to make those adaptations.
Finally, 4.5g is not typical. And if we did need to adapt to that, we could create very tiny pygmy/dwarf humans rather than Icelandic troll-gods.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 22 2018, @03:48PM (6 children)
This is extremely delusional.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday September 22 2018, @04:08PM (5 children)
Yes you are. When do you think we will reach an exoplanet? 20 years from now?
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(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 22 2018, @05:43PM (4 children)
Is it even proven that there are exoplanets? All they see is flickering stars... If you saw a flickering star and didn't know about planets, would that be the first explanation you came up with?
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 22 2018, @10:06PM
What is trolling about this?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday September 23 2018, @04:23AM (2 children)
To what standard of evidence? In addition to said flickering stars, we have detected motion of the stars and spectral lines from some of the transiting planets. That doesn't mean a planet is going to be nice enough to live on. Most of it is pretty nasty.
If you don't know about planets, then you don't know enough to have an opinion on flickering stars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 23 2018, @01:01PM (1 child)
The standard should be that they use those methods to predict something that is verified some other way. Obviously actually getting an image of the planet would be best.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday September 24 2018, @01:25PM
I noted three such methods. The flickering of stars (usually strongly periodic, I might add) is actually a very reliable measure. And it's not like the Solar System is going to be unique in the universe.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Sunday September 23 2018, @01:54AM
... fixing the overpopulation and social security bankruptcy problems a lot faster, anyway.