Have you ever wondered what types of sports will survive in the future, sports which will be played on other planets in space colonies? How about in orbiting space hotels, or space stations? How about in long-range cargo ships traveling through space to other planets? It might take them 10 months to get to the next nearest planet, Mars for instance or perhaps 10 years to get to a planet which is near the outside of our solar system. That’s a lot of time, and the crew will obviously be well compensated for their journey, but how will they spend their time?
What will they do? Will they write novels, play card games, and engage in various sport activities? What type of sport activities? What types of sports might they play on a cargo ship, a spacecraft that is extremely long, with large corridors – how about Archery? Sure, why not, and have you ever considered the future of archery in space? Chances are you’ve never considered this, but perhaps you might wish to engage your mind and consider why archery makes the most sense.
It’s not easy to play a sport in zero gravity, but without gravity the arrows will go much straighter, and they will be much more accurate. In fact they will remain accurate to the point where the arrow will go exactly where it’s pointed, and thus it will not deviate much. No wind to worry about and no gravity to pull the arrow down. Therefore it’s all about the skill of the archer.
Since the spacecraft will be made of high-tech materials there is no need to worry about the arrow penetrating the sidewalls, or bulkheads of the spacecraft, especially if they are using wooden arrows with steel tips. Consider if you will that carbon nano-tube composites and graphene coatings will be in the neighborhood of 250 times as strong as steel. The arrow is no match, therefore not a problem.
By the time a cargo crew reaches its destination nearly everyone on the ship will be excellent marksman with a bow and arrow, or a crossbow. When they finally do get back to Earth they can enter the Olympic Archery Competition. At that point they will be so accurate all they will have to do is compensate for the wind and gravity on Earth. If you are an archer, or you love the sport of archery, then please go ahead and shoot me an e-mail as I’d like to hear your comments on this article. Meanwhile, please think on it and consider all this.