Gravity change in opening

[exostrike]

I've realised that none of the people of the shuttle at the beginning stumble as they leave the craft due to the lighter gravity making them unbalanced.

This is obviously due to technolgical limitations, no way to simulate lower gravity on earth in a studio. But given Cameron went to so much trouble getting details in the film right its odd he didn't just have some of the extra stumble a bit.

(though on second thoughts it might have ruined the air of realsim)

[Nicodem]

I think that because the gravity is less and people being lighter, it is easier to control their weight, not harder. Everyone's muscles are used to more resistant gravity so this would be more of a relief.

Besides it's only supposed to be a 10% difference from Earth gravity.

Maybe you it mean it might be difficult since they were from a zero-g enviroment? Still, they were in cryo sleep for almost all of the trip.

[exostrike]

good point, just though that such a from change earth to pandoran gravity might cause them to overestimate their movements, causing stumbling and other clumsiness such as dropping things because you pick them up too quickly. though I suspect that the low gravity of the spacecraft would not help

[Ateyo'itan]

Interesting observation. I guess in comparison to zero-g in space they wouldn't notice the variation as much as they would if they went from Earth gravity to Pandora gravity. Still would expect a little stumble going from space to running on Pandora. Perhaps the ride on the shuttle and standing for a few seconds before getting the go ahead to run out was enough for them to adjust?

[_Omaticaya_]

I agree it's a good observation, and I've thought a lot about this gravity difference for months, but I came to the conclusion that being tough soldiers, and wearing all that heavy armor and gear, they barely noticed the difference. I mean, they did, but they're not like little kids that will like act all surprised and clumsy for such a thing lol... I bet they we're scared as hell landing on a new planet, I'd be too!

[philiprambo]

Its such a nice one.Thanks a lot for sharing.

[SpacePhoenix]

They might have simulated the Pandoran gravity by using a space station in orbit of earth with a rotating section which would be rotating at a speed suitable to generate gravity equal to that of Pandora

[Ja'k Dawsiin]

we really have no idea of how much time was spent in orbit before coming down to the surface,and maybe in the waking process of days or a week perhaps,there was a simulated-gravity acclamation period,as SpacePhoenix suggested. i do believe there was an extended period of adjustment,similar to deep-sea divers doing the decompression times in the chamber.

[MarkD]

People in space need constant exercise to keep their muscles and bones in shape. You do lose 1 to 2 % of your bone calcium per month and also your muscles also begin to waste away with little or no use.

[RD-701]

Remember, Pandora's gravity is not all that different to that of Earth. Pandoran gravity is 0.8 G, which is far less of a difference than that between Earth and the Moon (which has only 0.16 G) and Earth and Mars (which as 0.38 G). Venusian surface gravity is 0.9 G, for a comparison.

A person with a mass of 90 kilograms would weigh 72 kilograms on Pandora. That isn't much of a difference. Add in things like extra gear weighing people down, and the difference could get lost in 'noise'.

Acclimatisation to gravity becomes more of an issue on longer spaceflights, as the body becomes more adapted to the microgravity environment, atrophy sets in, etc. For almost all of their trip, the ISV passengers have been in cryosleep, so subjectively they wouldn't have spent much time in microgravity- perhaps on the order of days or less.

In addition there's also the ride on the TAV, during which passengers will be exposed to G-forces from the vehicle decelerating from orbital velocity. These will be higher than Pandoran surface gravity, although they will be minimised by the design of the trajectory (spaceplanes usually encounter lower decelerations during reentry compared to capsule spacecraft, like the Russian Soyuz). The shuttle had a peak of around 3G, I think. This deceleration is also over a period of tens of minutes (half an hour, for example), which is probably of time to adjust (though the passengers are sitting).

I would actually imagine the disorientation that they'd probably still be experiencing after coming out of cryo would be a more pressing issue.