Space quidditch gets Nasa seal of approval
Low-gravity games may help the Moon's first residents keep fit
Jonathan Richards
Even in their most fevered imaginings, most Harry Potter fans never expected to take part in a real-life game of quidditch.
Flying around like the wizards at Hogwarts is, however, precisely how Nasa imagines that the Moon's first residents will stay entertained — and fit — when the space agency establishes the permanent lunar base it is planning to build by 2024. In an interview with Times Online, one of Nasa’s chief scientists said that a ‘micro-gravity sports competition’ held inside a giant bubble on the surface of the moon was not beyond the realm of possibility.
“If you had a large, pressurised habitat, people could take advantage of the low-gravity environment by attaching wings to themselves and flying about,” Jeff Volosin, the lead global exploration strategy manager for Nasa, said.
Speaking at the launch of 181 Things To Do On The Moon, a Nasa document outlining the objectives of the proposed lunar colony, Mr Volosin said that lunar leisure “may initially consist of pastimes similar to Earth entertainment — satellite TV, movies, music and books.”
“Over time, however, advantage should be taken of the moon’s environment for unique activities such as one-sixth-G sports and games,” he said.
The guide, written by Nasa in consultation with 13 other space agencies, covers topics such as astronomy and astrophysics, as well as more speculative areas such as "lunar commerce".
Among the ideas proposed are using cameras to monitor the melting of the polar ice caps, the establishment of "lunar heritage sites", such as where the first astronauts landed, and "robotic races", in which teams on Earth would steer remote-controlled devices through courses on the Moon’s surface.
The document stresses that, as much as possible, Nasa’s lunar policy should be green. “Understanding the effect human activity has on the lunar surface is necessary to develop the next generation of planetary protection protocols,” it says.
It also suggests that, despite the Moon’s meagre resources, Nasa will do its best to live off the land. “We know that there’s oxygen which can be retrieved from the ‘regolith’ —- the moon’s ‘soil’,” Mr Volosin said. “That could obviously be used for breathing —- but also as a rocket propellant.”
That still left plenty of scope to pursue a rigorous corporate agenda, as described in chapters on "lunar resource utilisation’ and "development of lunar commerce".
The agency even anticipates a wave of space-related litigation, with one section of the paper highlighting the need “to resolve, as appropriate and possible, legal issues that could have a detrimental effect on industry as a whole, such as real and intellectual property rights.”
“Ever since the end of the Apollo program, folks around the world have been thinking about returning to the Moon, and what they would like to do there,” Mr Volosin said.
A rather more sombre note was sounded by the suggested creation of a ‘Life on Earth’ archive - which would be permanently housed on the Moon lest the blue planet be destroyed.
In December, NASA announced it would send astronauts back to the moon in 2020, with plans for a permanently occupied settlement from 2024.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article1386192.eceTahun 2024 Ambu udah nenek-nenek atuh .. err, jadi pendamping komentator aja a'la McGonagall
