Did the first astronauts understand what it felt like to walk on the moon prior to departing? And if so how was it calculated and recreated?
In: Physics
They definitely understood the theory of it. At that point, we understood that gravity was two masses attracting each other. As such, we could estimate how much mass the moon was, and we knew how large it was, so we could estimate its gravity quite well. The Russians had landed probes/spacecraft on the moon prior, and then there were crew fly-by’s of the moon before a crewed landing was attempted.
There are ways to simulate reduced gravity on earth, but none are 100% ideal. Water pools with properly ballasted suits, or airplanes following a parabolic arch can simulate it. But there definitely was some learning to be done by the first crew on the moon.
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