Living longer on the moon?

Question

i cant recall where i heard this from..

but i heard that if we lived on the moon,

in like space suits or whatever,

we would live to be atleast 200 years old

because we wouldnt have gravity pushing down on our bodies.

is this statement true?

and also,

i heard that if someone lives on the moon

for like 5 years or something,

and then tries to come back to earth,

they would die because their bodies wouldnt be able

to adjust back to Earth's gravity.

is this also true?

i know these are wierd questions,

but i was just wondering.

=]

Answer 1

We don't know the answer to your question yet.  People have spent months in zero gravity, but they purposely excercised so they could stay healthy and safely return to Earth.  There haven't really been experiments on low gravity on human longevity.  Even with the planned moon base, astronauts will only stay there for a short rotation (6 months I think).  Unless and astronaut on the moon refuses to come back to Earth, it might be a long time before we know the answer to your question.

Answer 2

Well, if you were on the moon with a spacesuit on, your life in Earth years would be decreased because of the gravity change.

In years, you would live a greater amount of moon years than you would Earth years because a year on the moon is only about 27 days. The year is the amount of time it takes an object to complete a 360 degree orbit around the object it it is orbiting. So on Earth, it takes about 365 days to orbit the sun. But on the moon, it takes 27 days to orbit the Earth. So the moon's year is shorter than the Earth's. Make sense? So forgetting about the gravity and such effects, and pretending you had an equal chance of living on both, you would live the same amount of time, but on the moon you would be more years old. Get it?

So lets say you live to be 80 on Earth (lets just pretend for simple calculation that the moon's year is 30 days and that there are always 30 days in one Earth month, okay?). So while you were alive on Earth, Earth completed a complete orbit around the sun 80 times because that is the object it is orbiting. Now in moon years, you woud be 2400 years old because during you life time, the moon orbited the Earth 2400 times. So although you lived the same amount of time on both planets, the time in that celestial body's year varies.

About the adjustment to gravity, you are right. Over the millions of years life has been evolving, we have evolved to the amount of gravity on Earth. Although we could stay in a 0-G environment for a couple months, if we were on the moon for 5 years, our cardiovascular system, and muscular system would take some sever damage. A low gravity environment will literally start to destroy your muscels, and will mess up your cardiovascular system because of the blood flow. Assumung you were able to adjust, and lived on the moon for 5 years, and then came back down to Earth, you would experience some major problems, again, because of the change in gravity.

Answer 3

actually from what i have heard....if we lived on the moon our live span is shorter because our bodies are so used to earths gravity that the pressure in space would wear our bodies down faster.

Answer 4

Someone who spends a long time on a space station could have difficulty adjusting to earths gravity again. Didnt someone just come off the united space station who has been up there longer than anyone ever before?

Anyways, they are expecting it to be difficult but no one has suggested they would die from comming back.