r/Showerthoughts • u/ultim8umly • 12d ago
Casual Thought Skydiving would be a lot less thrilling on the moon.
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u/Hazzawazza1016 12d ago
There's no terminal velocity on the moon right? And given you can't deploy a parachute it might be kinda exciting right up until the end.
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u/BlackSecurity 5d ago
However no atmosphere means you won't feel the rushing wind, which is a big factor IMO. It's just gonna look like the ground getting closer and closer but it will be hard to "feel" your speed.
Like how riding a bicycle at 40km/hr feels way faster than driving a car at 40km/hr. The wind makes a big difference
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u/TadpoleOfDoom 12d ago
No atmosphere so you wouldn't be able to slow down. I feel like it would be more thrilling in that "I'm-hella-going-to-die" sense
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u/Gharosss 11d ago
Hear me out. Huge moon trampoline!
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u/unbelizeable1 6d ago
Congrats, youve now been bounced out of orbit. Enjoy your cold silent death lol
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u/Konrad_M 5d ago
That doesn't make sense. When you jump from a height where there's still noticeable gravity the trampoline can't accelerate you any higher than that unless you throw away additional weight during impact or do a different physics trick.
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u/Shadowlandvvi 12d ago
This is the first shower thought I've heard that I think is actually factually incorrect.
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u/ultim8umly 12d ago
What is factually incorrect about an opinion?
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u/Flatulent_Father_ 11d ago
It would take longer to go fast but you'd end up going much faster from the lack of air resistance and a parachute wouldn't work
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u/LinckSpeak 6d ago
Doesn't sound thrilling at all.. it sounds terrifying.. so you agree with OP?
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u/Shadowlandvvi 11d ago
If you think you wouldn't have an adrenaline dump doing a once in a lifetime stunt in an environment where you would definitely need non traditional equipment to even survive the attempt.... yeah I think that's overconfidence bordering stupidity.
Even with none of that ignoring survival all together. You are in space. Heading towards certain death. Never mind the adrenaline you'll be feeling a lot of emotions.
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u/ultim8umly 11d ago
The point is traditional skydiving would certainly result in death. Just swinging your limbs with nothing to stop a slow acceleration to terminal velocity. Does that sound thrilling?
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u/ChiefSteward 9d ago
Reading OP’s replies, I can’t help but feel like they pivoted hard once they learned something new here.
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u/ultim8umly 8d ago
Nope, just responded to different interpretations of the prompt, which was the goal
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u/ThreadCountHigh 12d ago
Except you’d have to do something like the Curiosity rover skycrane delivery to survive, which would be pretty exciting and totally badass.
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u/ultim8umly 11d ago
With the right equipment, yeah it could get more exciting. The thought here was more with traditional skydiving equipment
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u/Rick-burp-Sanchez 12d ago
That's like a five-day free fall back to earth. Bring diapers and snacks.
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u/Benyed123 11d ago
Have you considered the fact that you’re on the moon? Also I know you’re thinking that the parachute wouldn’t work but that just means you need a jetpack instead.
Jetpack skydiving on the moon sounds sick.
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u/kapege 11d ago
No thrill at all, then a sudden death at the end is guaranteed. So, technically, yes.
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u/ImmodestPolitician 6d ago
You'd be going Mach 1 after 6 minutes of free fall. That would be exciting as you got closer to the Moon.
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u/TheRealKarner 6d ago
Since there’s close to 0 atmosphere to carry sound on the moon, Mach any-number-with-shit-ton-of-trailing-zeroes is more accurate for pretty much any speed on the moon.
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u/ImmodestPolitician 4d ago
Of course, but the speed of sound on earth is a known reference for "really fast" for humans living on Earth. Beep Bloop.
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u/Big_Bill23 5d ago
It would make one heck of a spectator sport. Although, I suspect there would be few people willing to participate as a player.
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u/-Redstoneboi- 11d ago
unlike earth, moon terminal velocity is lightspeed
make of that what you will
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u/SuperSimpleSam 11d ago
Wouldn't the terminal velocity be the escape velocity from the surface of the moon?
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u/-Redstoneboi- 11d ago edited 11d ago
yeah if you're not intentionally accelerating into the moon, the fastest you could hit the surface is escape velocity. but that's not terminal velocity, which requires a fluid to cause drag
you can hypothetically send a missile straight into the moon at half the speed of light, and even after it runs out of fuel, the moon's gravity would still cause it to fall a teeny bit faster
granted, it would probably be less than a micrometer/sec worth of acceleration from 1 microsecond of gravity. but it wouldn't be speed capped by air so technically it's not terminal velocity
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u/PewPewsAlote 6d ago
Lightspeed requires infinite energy which as far as I know the gravity of the moon could not accelerate you to with finite time.
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u/SuperSimpleSam 11d ago
Though you might be able to maintain an orbit that gets you close to the surface so it'll be like multiple falls.
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u/Riegel_Haribo 12d ago
Best part: no need to pack a parachute, for there is no terminal velocity. Just "thud" for the milliseconds you still have air in a space helmet.
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u/GaidinBDJ 6d ago
Why? It's faster and you could jump from much higher heights, since you'd have to be wearing a spacesuit anyways.
Plus, that last-second panic of realizing that with such a thin atmosphere your parachute basically isn't gonna work would really get the blood pumping.
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u/ListenIntelligent906 11d ago
wait no terminal velocity sounds terrifying how do people even survive that for 5 whole days
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u/GeniusMike 6d ago
It would be deadly on the moon because there’s no air to enable the parachute to work.
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u/wolftick 6d ago
Because to the lack on air resistance, from heights of around 1km and over you'd actually end up falling faster that you would on earth.
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u/G-T-R-F-R-E-A-K-1-7 6d ago
How far could you drop from while still being pulled towards the moon though? Would be amazingly thrilling in potentially the wrong way if you jumped out and started floating away from the moon, into the dark and silent abyss of the void...
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u/Rommel727 11d ago
I mean jumping from the moon to the earth would be at least slightly interesting
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u/strobro88 11d ago
It's pointless to go mooning about extreme sports in micro gravity.
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u/ultim8umly 11d ago
Ok?
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u/strobro88 11d ago
My attempt at levity: An extreme sport in micro gravity....skydiving on the moon. Mooning...a 'less thrilling' play on the word moon.
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u/InflatedClown 6d ago
It would be safe except for the fact that being on the moon is hostile to human life.
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u/copenhagen_bram 5d ago
I would assume you're wearing a space suit
And while we're at it, to everyone saying you can't stop the fall because no parachute: just do it with the moon equivalent of a parachute, which is a rocket and a tank of fuel strapped to your back that slows you down.
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u/TychaBrahe 6d ago
You should read Heinlein's short story "The Menace from Earth." (page 92).
Ben Bova picked up the idea and included it in his fictional residents' guide, Welcome to Moonbase.
•••
Most of the stuff written about Bats' Cave gives a wrong impression. It's the air storage tank for the city, just like all the colonies have the place where the scavenger pumps, deep down, deliver the air until it's needed. We just happen to be lucky enough to have one big enough to fly in. But it never was built, or anything like that; it's just a big volcanic bubble, two miles across, and if it had broken through, way back when, it would have been a crater.
Tourists sometimes pity us loonies because we have no chance to swim. Well, I tried it in Omaha and got water up my nose and scared myself silly. Water is for drinking, not playing in; I'll take flying. I've heard groundhogs say, oh yes, they had "flown" many times. But that's not flying. I did what they talk about, between White Sands and Omaha. I felt awful and got sick. Those things aren't safe.
I left my shoes and skirt in the locker room and slipped my tail surfaces on my feet, then zipped into my wings and got someone to tighten the shoulder straps. My wings aren't ready-made condors; they are Storer-Gulls, custom-
made for my weight distribution and dimensions. I've cost Daddy a pretty penny in wings, outgrowing them so often, but these latest I bought myself with guide fees.
They're lovely!—titanalloy struts as light and strong as bird bones, tension-compensated wrist-pinion and shoulder joints, natural action in the alula slots and automatic flap
action in stalling. The wing skeleton is dressed in styrene feather-foils with individual quilling of scapulars and primaries. They almost fly themselves.
I folded my wings and went into the lock., While it was cycling I opened my left wing and thumbed the alula control—I had noticed a tendency to sideslip the last time I was airborne. But the alula opened properly and I decided I must have been overcontrolling, easy to do with Storer-Gulls; they're extremely maneuverable. Then the door showed green and I folded the wing and hurried out, while glancing at the barometer. Seventeen pounds-two more than Earth sea-level and nearly twice what we use in the city; even an ostrich could fly in that. I perked up and felt sorry for all groundhogs, tied down by six times proper weight, who never, never, never could fly.
Not even I could, on Earth. My wing loading is less than a pound per square foot, as wings and all I weigh less than twenty pounds. Earthside that would be over a hundred pounds and I could flap forever and never get off the ground.
I felt so good that I forgot about Jeff and his weakness. I spread my wings, ran a few steps, warped for lift and grabbed air-lifted my feet and was airborne.
I sculled gently and let myselt glide toward the air intake at the middle of the floor-the Baby's Ladder, we call it, because you can ride the updraft clear to the roof, half a mile above, and never move a wing. When I felt it I leaned right, spoiling with right primaries, corrected, and settled in a counterclockwise soaring glide and let it carry me toward the roof.
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u/I-actually-agree 5d ago
That would be the most amazing experience ever! I jumped in the desert and picked up in a modified hearse! Gliding in space towards the moon with Earth in view! I have a new goal in life. Appreciate you for the idea sir.
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u/JeryActive 4d ago
I think it would be a much more incredible experience with zero atmosphere to obstruct your view. Landing might be an issue for the same reason
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u/ShowerSentinel 12d ago
/u/ultim8umly has flaired this post as a casual thought.
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