Dark Footage - Astronauts Falling on the Moon

no Jack Schmidt having a few problem comical as these recordings of astronauts falling on the moon may seem that were actually carried out under mission orders and were of valuable importance to NASA's research endeavors during Apollo 15 astronauts were conducting experiments and metabolic rates across various types of lunar terrain and during Apollo 16 the Falls took place while testing differences in locomotion and the moon and earth adding two unexpected seriousness of the footage one of these Falls threatened the life of astronaut Charles Duke who came close to cracking a suit and exposing himself to the vacuum of space why astronauts fall they have hazard movements of Apollo astronauts in the moon is a product of it having only 1/6 of the Earth's gravity while a body weighs less on the moon it still has the same mass which means at the body's inertia or resistance to changes in motion stays linked to its mass rather than changing with reduced weight the experience of walking on the moon therefore feels unreal and uncomfortable for moon Walker's in particular astronaut Buzz Aldrin described the experience of putting a foot down on the satellite that's walking on quote moist talcum powder even within months of non-stop intensive training the astronauts struggled not only with the conditions of gravity but also with their spacesuits although their spacesuits no longer weigh the 300 pounds they did on earth they were still stiff and unwieldy many regular actions such as bending down to pick up an object but only result in the fall so the astronauts had to use tools from any simple tasks while wearing them additionally in order to crouch they would need to hop first and then use the landing to compress their suits NASA investigations starting with the first moon landing in July of 1969 NASA became deeply interested in the mobility of men on the moon and for the first time real data on the matter could be collected for the entirety of the Apollo era NASA dedicated resources to study and analyze the Falls of astronauts on the moon so I could assess the dexterity of people outside of earth scientists worried about the flexibility of suits whether astronauts could handle key equipment while wearing spacesuits and which techniques would be best to prepare for before going to the moon by studying the movements and the failures of movement on the moon NASA scientists could address these concerns the subject of moon falls was taken seriously preserved not only in footage but in detailed documents one of the reports in the matter about commander David Scott from the Apollo 15 mission reads as follows quote he begins moving toward a new area as he gives the camera reading and summarizes 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 continue sliding on the loose surface soil while trying to drive his feet back under his center 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 the reports for the Apollo 16 mission were even more detailed including analysis of why the fall happened how it did and how the astronaut returned to his feet an aspect that scientists focused on was how mobility and energy would change with different movements one of their findings was skipping and walking while requiring vastly different amounts of energy on earth required the same amount as each other on the moon another valuable conclusion that NASA made early on was to do to the slower Falls the astronauts had time to correct a slip or work on standing back up in case of a fall some of their conclusions were less helpful such as stating the number of Falls were caused by loss of traction because of loose soil one of the astronauts written about in these reports was Charles Duke who was trying to lift a pair of dropped tongs when he stepped on them instead and lost his balance trying to pick them up he fell face-first ironically after he was trying to pick up the tongs to then pick up a hammer he had dropped a few moments before that fall was relatively harmless but during the Apollo 16 mission he would take a fall that almost ended his life Charles Dukes fall Charles Duke and his commander John Young were on the moon in 1972 the same year as the Munich Olympics and they decided that they wanted to perform what they called quote moon Olympics thanks to low lunar gravity when compared to earth they hope to achieve our best athletic earth records during the last minutes of a spacewalk the seemingly innocent decision put Duke at risk it was only 36 years old at the time the youngest person has walked in the moon they began by trying to take the highest jumps possible Duke launched himself four feet above the lunar surface an accomplishment he could have been proud of except for the fact that he decided to straighten his body while in the air his spacesuit weighed 50 pounds on the moon far less than 300 on earth but still significantly heavy more than half of this weight came from the backpack which held his portable life support system any damage to the backpack could prove fatal this heavy weight completely changed his balance and pulled him down but the backpack headed to take the crash of landing on the ground directly as Duke himself has stated quote the backpack weighed as much as I did so he went over backwards it's a fiberglass shell and it contained all your life-support systems if it broke I was dead the astronaut has expressed that he felt extreme distress as soon as he realized the implications of landing with all his weight in the backpack thankfully as NASA studies had recorded falling on the moon is slow and gives the astronaut time to react before crashing Duke were rolled to the right breaking the fall but the rolling motion didn't make him bounce commander John Young approached him knowing that if the life-support system failed he would have to carry an unconscious Duke back to the module who would likely perish before making it there about the moment recalled in an interview quote my heart was pounding John Young my commander came over and looked down and says that wasn't very smart Charlie and I said help me up John and I got real quiet after standing up with assistance he made sure that everything was in order and still working he'd annoyed the fall without damaging the space suit as entertaining or amusing as footage of falling astronauts may appear moon falling does carry real risk [Music] you

Channel: Dark5

Views: 5,377,248

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Keywords: moon, space, astronaut, nasa, apollo, apollo 15, apollo 16, falling, funny, bloopers, science, footage, video, caught on tape, moon landing, lunar, recorded, dark5, real, astronauts, documentary, education, space documentary, dark5tv, surprising, real footage, research, spacesuit, space suit, experiments, experiment

Id: 6QDvJ7Vtfac

Length: 6min 45sec (405 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 12 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Ivanwood]

Wait... Dark 5 has commentary now??? It was always text for a long long time.