h a l f b a k e r yRecalculations place it at 0.4999.
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Start in the middle of the space ship and swim your way to the edge by swimming through the air. It's a way to keep entertained on long interplanetary journeys. Help from exhaled propulsion is allowed and even encouraged
Astronaut stuck in zero-g
https://imgur.com/0oyJdrQ
[tatterdemalion, Dec 14 2022]
[link]
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Swim fins - freakin’ huge ones on arms and legs, more like wings than fins - would help. Pushing against air instead of water will impart orders of magnitude less thrust. |
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This won't work as well as you think and can actually be quite dangerous. Hence why space habitats are designed to have very few spaces large enough for this to happen. Astronauts train for how to get out of this situation (see link). Chris Hadfield says really the only way is to rely on the ventilation system to gradually move you close to something you can grab. |
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I think this was a plot point in Ender's Game also. |
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It’s been a minor plot point in sci-fi for a lot longer. At least one Heinlein short story* has a humorous bit about a family enroute to a lunar vacation has someone gets stuck floating in the middle of her sleeping room. Someone had to throw a pillow at her to give her a nudge back to a handhold. |
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Human powered flight in low gravity and air swimming in zero gravity are old, often rehashed SF ideas. I wanted to downcheck [ixnaum] for that reason, but … it’s still a pretty enough picture. |
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—-
* Probably around 1950 but RAH wrote many “trip to the Moon” stories and I’m not recalling which one that bit was in. |
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Are you claiming it won't work to inhale in one direction and exhale in another? Yes you'll mostly give yourself a spin, but it's an off-center spin that can be exploited. |
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// inhale in one direction and exhale in another // |
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Or perhaps a steady stream of urine. |
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So each astronaut should carry a pair of folding Japanese fans? |
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// So each astronaut should carry a pair of folding Japanese fans? /./ |
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Or whatever style they like. Maybe even cosplay as a dragon. |
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Even that has been suggested in sci fi, though as a costume for low gravity human powered flight rather than zero-G air swimming. Pretty sure it's in Clarke's 3001, Final Odyssey. |
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All of the above comments about prior art and impracticality are true, but in no way negate the principle of this new idea, of having a race. So [+] |
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Wanna bet I can find a sci-fi prior art reference to a zero-g, air-swimming-flying race? It might take a while but if the stakes are good enough, I'll put it on my to-do list. |
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