HARD LANDING
Hilarious Nasa Moon landing footage reveals Apollo 11 astronauts falling over again and again in lunar gravity
HILARIOUS footage from the Nasa archive reveals brave Apollo astronauts being bested by low lunar gravity.
A video reveal shows the space heroes falling over again and again while trying to navigate the Moon's rocky surface.
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Although amusing, the footage was actually collected by Nasa to study astronauts losing their footing.
Nasa used Apollo 15 footage to track metabolic rates of astronauts moving up and down hills, as well as across flat terrain.
And Apollo 16 footage was studied to compare how human movement and dexterity differs on the Earth and Moon, as noted by .
The problem with movement on the Moon is that gravity is so much lower.
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In fact, gravity's pull on your body on the Moon is about a sixth of the gravity on Earth.
If you drop an object here on Earth, it will fall at around 9.807 metres per second.
But drop the object on the Moon and it will fall at a far slower 1.62 metres per second.
This causes a strange effect based on the difference between mass and weight.
Weight is simply the mass of your body multiplied by gravity.
So on the Moon, your mass stays the same but your weight is different.
And inertia – your moving body's resistance to changes in direction – is related to your mass, not weight. So inertia stays the same on the Moon, but you "feel" lighter.
This makes you very clumsy when you move around, because your movements happen in unexpected ways.
Apollo 11 mission – the key facts
Here's what you need to know...
- Apollo 11 is the name for the mission that landed the first two people on the Moon
- The spaceflight was manned by Command Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin, both Americans
- They landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969 and 8.17pm UTC
- Armstrong became the first person to set food on the lunar surface six hours later
- He was then joined by Aldrin a further 19 minutes later
- The pair spent roughly two hours and 15 minutes together outside the spacecraft, collecting lunar material to bring back to Earth
- And in total, they spent 21.5 hours on the lunar surface before rejoining the command module Columbia in lunar orbit
- Armstrong's first step onto the lunar surface was broadcast live on TV to the world
- He famously described the moment as "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"
Nasa even made detailed documentations of these space falls.
An official description of Commander David Scott's trip on Apollo 15 reads: "[David] begins moving toward a new area as he gives the camera reading and summarises the description of the area.
"He steps around a group of rock fragments and then his right foot steps into a small depression and he begins to lose his balance.
"As he steps with his left foot, it slides off a small rock and continues sliding on the loose surface soil.
"While trying to drive his feet back under his centre of gravity, Scott increases his forward velocity.
"He then falls forward with both hands extended to break the fall. Landing on his left side, he rolls counterclockwise and on his back and is then out of view of the TV camera."
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The video comes in the same week that the world celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing.
On July 16, 1969, three astronauts – including Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin – launched into space from Florida.
And on July 20, they touched down on the Moon, becoming the first humans to walk on the lunar surface.
Highlights footage from the Apollo 11 moonwalk which saw Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins step onto the moon for the first time
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The Apollo 11 astronauts also had to cope with no toilet, and resorted to using bags taped to their bums.
Sadly, some people still thing the whole event we faked – we bust the most popular Apollo 11 Moon landing myths.
And here's why some people still think the Moon landings were faked 50 years later – and the man who started the ‘hoax’ theory.
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