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posted by martyb on Saturday September 22 2018, @01:38PM   Printer-friendly
from the powered-exoskeleton? dept.

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?


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 22 2018, @03:54PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 22 2018, @03:54PM (#738566)
    Barely? There are 7.4 billion people on this planet. There are only 4 billion hectares of forest in this world. 1 hectare is about two football fields. So there's about only one football field of forest left per person.

    And there are about 1+ billion cows, 1 billion sheep, 1 billion pigs, 19 billion chickens.

    The weight of all the ships in the sea is already in the same magnitude as the weight of all the fish in the sea. Some estimates have the ships as weighing more.

    We've gone past colonizing this world and moved to doing anal, bondage and submission on it.
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 22 2018, @04:00PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 22 2018, @04:00PM (#738569)

    Two football fields per person is huge. A person only needs a couple cubic meter tube to survive (see japan, astronauts, or submariners). Also, people barely live underground or under the sea yet. Finally, there is an entire moon to colonize.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday September 22 2018, @04:09PM (1 child)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 22 2018, @04:09PM (#738574) Journal

      A couple cubic meter cube sounds great - in theory. In real life, you can't fit a long term biosphere within that cube. You might replace plants for recycling oxygen with equipment, but how much room does that take? Where's your food source? How are you recycling water?

      Fact is, it takes a few magnitudes more than a couple cubic meters to support a single human being on earth.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 22 2018, @05:49PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 22 2018, @05:49PM (#738609)

        There's still almost no vertical agriculture. Or, instead of that, the entire surface can be used for agriculture and we can move underground or into floating cities.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 22 2018, @04:08PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 22 2018, @04:08PM (#738573)

    Seasteading!