Extreme Survival: Extreme G-Force
At increased G-Force our blood gets heavier causing serious problems.
Our hearts have evolved over millions of years to pump blood round
our bodies against a force of just 1 G. When this G-Force increase,
our hearts are literally not strong enough to push our blood uphill
into our brain, so, instead, it pulls on the veins in our legs.
As blood drains away from our brain it begins to shut down.
We first lose our colour vision, then our field of view shrinks
until, eventually, we lose consciousness
Being Superhuman is having the skills of endurance to go way beyond
the normal human experience and the ability push your physical and
mental capacity to the very limit under extreme conditions.
The Test
This is an endurance test of how well our contestants could function
in an entirely alien environment.
Our contestants are fitted with anti-gravity trousers - the same
as worn by fighter pilots to stop them passing out in extreme G.
The anti-G trousers squeeze the legs, allowing you to remain conscious
in higher gravity situations.
They were then strapped inside a centrifuge. This sophisticated
machine can subject people to high levels of acceleration similar
to what you would experience in a jet fighter plane or spaceship.
Gradually, they were spun up through increasing G conditions to
a level of 5G - which is a fairly high level of G. At such a level,
every part of their bodies weighed five times as much as normal
- so even the lightest of our contestants probably weighed over
a quarter of a tonne. Characteristically, you could see the G-Force
stretching our contestant's faces.
In these Extreme G-Force conditions, we asked our contestants to
carry out a psychomotor task. In the centrifuge, a screen was placed
in front of our contestants. At each corner of the screen is a switch
- one red, one blue, one green and one yellow. When a coloured light
appears in the middle of the screen they had to press the switch
that they thought corresponded with that colour. A pretty simple
test at 1G but the sheer physical effort of lifting your arm and
pressing a button makes this a really tough test at 5G.
Each test lasted 35 seconds and was repeated five times at progressively
increased G-Force up to our maximum of 5G. Our contestants were
allowed a brief recovery time between each run.
Contestants were allowed to be sick but could continue with the
test if they were able and willing to do so. However, they faced
elimination if they became unconscious.
The Expert
Wing Commander Dr Henry Lupa PhD BSc MB ChB DAvMed
MRAeS - Qinetiq Centre for Human Science.
Why Is It Superhuman To Cope With High
G-Force?
Being exposed to Extreme G-Forces has various effects on the human
body. Wearing anti-G trousers protect you from many of these symptoms,
but how much they protect you varies from person to person.
Click here to check out the effects
of increasing G-Force >
Scoring
Each contestant was scored on how many G-Force levels - how many
runs in the centrifuge - they were able to complete and their accuracy
and reaction time in the test.
Our Superhuman will be the contestant who was best able to resist
the loss of their peripheral vision and colour perception and to
cope with muscle movement.
Click here to see the
final results >
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