Study of Mans Movement with a Space Suit in Lunar Gravity 1964 NASA Langley Research Center; Project Apollo (Patreon)

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Project Apollo Moon mobility testing. '1964 test conducted at NASA Langley Research Center's Lunar Landing Research Facility, also known as the "Gantry."  The test was an exploratory study of Man's self-locomotion capabilities with a space suit in lunar gravity.

Langley Film #L-852.'

Originally a public domain film from NASA, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19690026893.pdf

This report summarizes the results, methods, procedures, and apparatus of an extensive study to evaluate man's capability for self-locomotion on the surface of the moon which is reported in full in NASA CR-1402. This program was conducted for the Langley Research Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Contract NAS 1-7053.

The objectives of this program were to investigate systematically the effects of space suits, pack weights, slope grades, lunar surface conditions, gaits used for locomotion, velocity of traverse, and methods of simulating lunar gravity on self-locomotive performance. The effects of these independent variables were primarily evaluated by physiological and kinematic measurements.

Prior investigation at Langley Research Center on the effects of lunar gravity on a wide range of activities had indicated that walking, running, climbing, and other activities on the lunar surface would be substantially improved over that to which we are accustomed on Earth... The lunar gravity conditions have indicated a high probability of a corresponding substantial decrease in the metabolic cost of walking compared to rates for Earth gravity conditions...

The amount of research conducted on energy levels prior to the program reported in this document has been quite limited, and the level of confidence for generalization to the actual lunar surface has been uncertain. Among the reasons for this were the uncertainty about the adequacy of the various simulation techniques, the lack of data with space suits, and the uncertainty concerning lunar surface conditions. The primary reason, however, for the lack of sufficient confidence for predictive purposes has simply been the paucity of data. The program summarized in this report represents a major step toward correcting these deficiencies...

SECTION 5

CONCLUSIONS

I. Metabolic rates are lower during locomotion in simulated lunar gravity than at 1 g. The decrease is approximately 30.5 percent at 2 km/hr and 64.6 percent at 8 km/hr in mufti, and 51.1 percent at 2 km/hr and 37.9 percent at 3 km/hr in the Gemini space suit.

2. Energy cost for a loping gait is higher than for either walking or running. This observation is consistent for subjects either with or without space suits.

3. The metabolic rate for walking in a Gemini space suit on a level surface at any given gait and velocity with a 75-lb pack is unchanged by substitution of 240- or 400-lb pack...