Space sports and the future of athletics
By Katie Czenczek, Staff Writer
If you’re even half as fascinated by space as I am, it is likely that you’ve searched up videos online of astronauts goofing around on their shuttle. You may have even come across astronauts playing a variety of different sports while floating around above Earth’s atmosphere. Everything from soccer to baseball to wrestling has occurred while people orbit their home. There’s been first pitches thrown from space by die-hard baseball fans and there has even been a new sport invented using water jugs.
Although I have no intentions of becoming an astronaut any time soon, I would love to experience what it is like to traverse around in space, especially if I were to learn what it feels like to kick a soccer ball while floating in the air. I know I wouldn’t pass the strict psychological tests astronauts go through in order to determine whether or not they’ll lose it while stuck in a metal container for six months with the same three crewmembers, so I’ll have to find an activity that could replicate space athletics.
It is a feeling that the majority of the population will never experience in their lifetime, unfortunately; unless, that is, you’re willing to shell out thousands of dollars to hop on board the Zero-G aircraft. Since I, like many other college students, do not have the funds to pay $5,000 to be weightless for a day, I will be one of the many missing out on space aerobics.
There is, however, aerial yoga.
Aerial yoga, though not nearly as exciting as a hopping aboard a plane and reaching low atmospheric pressure, is a more affordable and attainable solution for my need to try out weightlessness. The other great thing about it is that there are classes held around Vancouver, starting at a mere $15. Being suspended in hammocks in the air while you move from pose to pose is both physically challenging and can possibly give you the feeling of weightlessness that you may desire.
If yoga isn’t your thing on land and you’re certain it won’t change suspended by a silk hammock, you could also always try out scuba diving. It is often said that weightless can be simulated through diving, so there’s that! However, if you’re going to shell out the bucks to try and learn how to dive, you can probably hop on board a Zero-G aircraft, at least once in your life. Bring a ball!
