Lunar Culture in World 20 - 4 | World Anvil

Lunar Culture

Though the moon has only been open to the general public for around 40 years, it has its own burgeoning unique culture, that has developed around the unique challenges of living on the moon.  

Tourism

Tourism is a big industry on the moon. Beyond the general experience of being in a low-gravity environment, there are several popular tourist activities.   Crater walking involves leaving the atmospheric domes and walking along the moon’s surface with a guide. Partakers must suit-up in space suits, and slowly trek across craters.   Earth viewing is an activity where tourists travel to specific viewing locations on the moon, and watch the earth rise over the moon’s horizon.   There are also music festivals heard on the moon, tours of the science facilities, and lunar sports.  

The Internet

Internet on the moon is provided by a series of comm buoy satellites in orbit. Due to the distance between the earth and the moon (~1 light second), there is a minimum period of two seconds of latency for every browsing request. As such the internet is used as rarely as possible – two seconds for every change in query adds up very quickly.   Due to this, most people do research using e-book libraries that are held on a local network on the moon. Access to these libraries is available for a small monthly fee.   There are also media libraries held locally on the moon. Once a month, there’s a data package flown up to the moon that updates these with new music, video, books, art, and so on. If someone on the moon has a specific request that would not otherwise be included, they can pay extra to have it specifically included.  

Exercise

As the low gravity environment of the moon can very quickly lead to lost muscle mass – making returning to earth, even briefly, very difficult – there is a big exercise culture on the moon. Most exercise with the aim of building muscle is based around spring-powered equipment, as weights are not as effective on the moon. (Springs provide resistance to force regardless of gravity.)   Swimming, in particular, is popular, considered by many to be the planetary sport. Low gravity makes swimming a different experience on the moon. Wearing flippers, for example, it is perfectly possible for a swimmer to propel themselves out of the water like a dolphin.   Other popular sports include golf (though this is mainly enjoyed by the richer people on the moon) and trampolining.  

Fashion

Most everyday clothes are the moon are tightly tailored, with little excess fabric. The fabric is most often synthetic or plant-based – there is very little leather, as there are no livestock on the moon. The lack of excess fabric is mostly practical – floaty dresses are much more floaty in low-gravity environments. It can be very easy to flash your underwear to passers-by on the street if your clothes aren’t quite tight enough.   Lunar haute couture, by contrast, is fascinated mostly in the opposite direction. These clothes are often loose, and carefully cut to float around the body in artistic patterns. They are, however, rarely worn by the populace.   Most people on the moon wear very bulky shoes – these are specially designed magnetised boots that adhere to magnetic walkways within lunar settlements. They are not often worn inside – most interiors feature bars along the walls that you can use to propel yourself towards your destination faster.   Another element of fashion is that of space suits. Much the same way that people who live on the coast frequently own wetsuits, people who live on the moon frequently own space suits. These are once again split down price-lines: more expensive space suits have better insulator technology, and are sleeker, with unique patterns or colours; less-expensive space suits are bulkier, and come in a standard colour of orange.  

Food

As there is no livestock farming on the moon, most of the diet is vegetarian. There is, however, lab-grown meat available at a higher price point. An extravagant meal would feature meat with visible grains – this shows that the meat being served was grown in lab conditions all at once, as opposed to being grown in smaller sections and merged together during food production.

Comments

Please Login in order to comment!