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| Low gravity life | |
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| Topic Started: May 30 2009, 01:05 PM (3,816 Views) | |
| lamna | May 30 2009, 01:05 PM Post #1 |
 
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I have long wondered what would happen to earth life if it had to live in very low gravity. Suppose for some reason humans create ecosystems with very low gravity. Perhaps on Deimos. And that this habitat is maintained for millions of years. What would develop? |
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Living Fossils Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural 34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur. [flash=500,450] Video Magic! [/flash] | |
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| T.Neo | Sep 3 2010, 07:02 AM Post #46 |
Translunar injection: TLI
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The reason they wouldn't be able to live in minimal gravity (or at least microgravity) is because primarily it messes up reproduction (in both mammals and birds), and in microgravity mammals at least suffer muscoskeletal and cardiovascular degeneration. So the likelihood is that they'd live until their skeletons or hearts gave out, and they'd fail to reproduce. Heck, there's no telling that they'd manage to mate in the first place... even we humans would have problems with that, but fortunately we're kinky enough to devise solutions. Funnily enough... it's easier to adapt to higher gravity of maybe 2 g... there have been experiments involving rats at that acceleration. As for the gravity on Deimos, it is 400 micro-G, or a 2500th of Earth's gravity. It's so little, that you probably wouldn't be able to walk along the surface (your steps would keep pushing you off the surface). And the escape velocity is 5.6m/s (or 20km/h), which means that from the surface you'd be able to throw a ball into space... So yeah... you'd still get the degeneration issues, but the low gravity might, and I say might, help embryological development... at least partially. But birds mammals and reptiles wouldn't be able to survive. Plants on the other hand... they could probably survive, albeit with the slight problem of their roots growing upwards as well as downwards... |
| A hard mathematical figure provides a sort of enlightenment to one's understanding of an idea that is never matched by mere guesswork. | |
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| Holben | Sep 3 2010, 11:06 AM Post #47 |
Rumbo a la Victoria
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To make things easier, how about making a hollow inside the moon, sealing it and giving it a decent climate. Then introducing animals, of course. |
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Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea. "It is the old wound my king. It has never healed." | |
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| T.Neo | Sep 3 2010, 01:17 PM Post #48 |
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Translunar injection: TLI
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It's going to be pretty pointless, when they fail to reproduce.  I was initially assuming a sort of a worldhouse roof over Deimos. I doubt the internal structure would take well to hollowing out. I mean, how would you introduce light and heat to an internal hollow? 
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| A hard mathematical figure provides a sort of enlightenment to one's understanding of an idea that is never matched by mere guesswork. | |
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| Holben | Sep 3 2010, 01:18 PM Post #49 |
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Rumbo a la Victoria
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With electricity? Why would arthries fail to reproduce? |
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Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea. "It is the old wound my king. It has never healed." | |
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| T.Neo | Sep 4 2010, 08:49 AM Post #50 |
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Translunar injection: TLI
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That's a tad more complicated than using a window...
I haven't head of any studies done on arthropod reproduction or survival in space. If the lack of gravity didn't mess up their embryological development, it's possible that it could physically prevent them from mating. |
| A hard mathematical figure provides a sort of enlightenment to one's understanding of an idea that is never matched by mere guesswork. | |
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| lamna | Sep 4 2010, 08:55 AM Post #51 |
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Well I don't think it would bother flying insects. |
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Living Fossils Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural 34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur. [flash=500,450] Video Magic! [/flash] | |
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| T.Neo | Sep 4 2010, 11:20 AM Post #52 |
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Translunar injection: TLI
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Potentially not, but one must also consider that "flight" dynamics in microgravity are different to flight dynamics on the surface of a planet. |
| A hard mathematical figure provides a sort of enlightenment to one's understanding of an idea that is never matched by mere guesswork. | |
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