We are Pi-bots FLL Robotics team from Redmond, Washington. We want astronauts to be healthy and have fun on long-term space travel. Our idea is to come up with sports that involve physical activity, team collaboration, and fun! We modified Soccer into 'Zero-G Soccer', for playing in space. Zero-G Soccer has a 3-D field with rope handles, circular goals, laser field markings, and much more. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_tGPME2Wc8

1. SPORTS IN ZERO-G
Arnav, Bharadwaj, Ashay, Saachi, Aditya, Shubh, Arhan, Prisha
FLL Team #2120

2. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
• Going into long-term space travel will require months of travel time.
During this time the space travelers need to keep themselves not only
physically and mentally healthy, but also entertained and socially
connected with each other.
• The lack of gravity causes bone loss, muscle loss and eyesight loss.
Since space travelers mostly use arms, their legs don’t get any exercise
at all.
• Long-term space travel can result in boredom, isolation, depression,
etc.
• Playing sports can help space travelers with many of these problems.
• Playing sports is more fun and interactive than exercising alone.
• All of the sports on earth are designed to play in gravity.

3. PROBLEM DEFINITION
To come up with sports that can be played in Zero-G during
space travel that involve physical activity and team
collaboration.
Our team thought about sports that can be played in Zero-G and focused on:
• Modifying Soccer so that it can be played in Zero-G.
• Inventing completely new sports for Zero-G.

4. PROBLEM ANALYSIS
Challenges with Playing Sports in Zero-G:
• No force to hold astronauts feet on the ground
• Difficult to control players motions. Bodies will keep moving after performing action, bumping into
walls and ceiling
• Difficult to position bodies without touching anything.
• Don’t have sense of direction, e.g. up/down.
Challenges with Soccer in Zero-G:
• Hard to give speed to ball without any surface to push against with your legs
• Using feet to pass is challenging in space because feet cannot stay on the floor
• Angle of impact between ball and foot affects the speed and direction of ball, sometimes the aim
will be way off.
• Hard to keep hands out of the way in space

5. EXISTING SOLUTIONS: GAME TRIALS
In Space, astronauts have attempted to play
and integrate small toys on Earth to space.​
• Yo-Yo, Spinning top, Jump rope, Hand
helicopter, Boomerang, Marbles, Climbing
Bear, Pecking Hens, Origami
Some more known sports that were
attempted include
• Soccer, Hockey, Lacrosse, Golf, Baseball,
Football, Basketball
• On Soyuz expedition mission 16+17, the crews ran a flying relay race from one module to
another.
• Astronaut Sunita Williams ran the Boston Marathon in space.
• On Sub-Orbital flights by the Zero Gravity Corp., passengers have played games such dodge
ball and tag during short periods of weightlessness on the rollercoaster-like parabolic flights.
All of these games were played for trials.
There has not been a full fledged game that has been played on a large scale yet or
modified to play in Zero-G​…yet.

6. EXISTING IDEAS FOR PLAYING ZERO-G SPORTS
The Space Stadium:
An engineer named Patrick Collins has
proposed design and regulations to build a
space stadium, 60 m in diameter, 100 meters
long
The stadium can revolve around earth like ISS.
Space Champions:
Rocky Persaud, President of IPX Entertainment
Inc., plans to create a show called "Space
Champions" - a reality TV show focused around
games to be played in zero gravity.

7. TEAM SOLUTION 1: ZERO-G SOCCER
We modified the game of soccer by changing many aspects of the
game
• We propose to have a cylindrical shaped field.
• The wall should have some padding to cushion the ball's motion
and protect players when bumping.
• There should be rope handles attached to the walls for
astronauts to hold on and control their movements easily.
• The ball should be made out of a soft materials like cotton or
balloon so as to not hurt the astronauts
• The field can colored lines and laser beams to mark the Goal
box, penalty box, penalty spot and half line.

8. Corner
`
3D View of the Field
Goal
Half
Line
Rope
handle
Spectator
Glass
Penalt
y
Penalty Box
Goal Box
Spectato
r
Glass

9. ``
Penalty SpotPenalty Spot
Goalie BoxGoalie Box Penalty Box Penalty Box
Half Line
Side View of the Field
Goal
Corner

10. Criteria Soccer Zero Gravity Soccer
Field Rectangular & 2-D Cylindrical & 3-D
Boeing 727-200 used by Zero-G Corp. (Cabin width 3.56m), Orbital Sports
Stadium (60m. in diameter), BFR (9m. in diameter)
Field markings White lines Color-coded lines around the curved sides of the cylinder. Also can use laser
beams to help the referee as well as players for locating the field markings in
3D.
Soccer Ball Spherical Required Properties:
Soft/Squishy: Absorbs impact, safe
Lightweight: easier to kick & safe, more reactive to air friction
Proposed materials: Strong balloon ball, beach ball, cotton ball
Goal Shape
Goal Color
Goalie
Rectangular
White (usually)
Stays in goalie box
Oval shaped
Color coded(red and blue)
Has feet straped to ground and has to stay in goalie box
Long-side Boundaries Out of play=Throw in No out of play balls
Short-side Boundaries Corner/goal kick Corner kick or goal kick from the marked areas.
Penalty/free/goal kicks Kick from the spot Punt from the spot of foul.
Offside Yes Yes
Spectators Bleachers Outside the flat side of the cylindrical field, covered by break-proof/bullet
proof glass.
Number of players 11 per side Recommended amount players = (Diameter in feet * length in feet)/13

11. TEAM SOLUTION 2: BLOWBALL
Zero-G soccer Blowball
Cylindrical field Cylindrical field
Kick the ball Blow the ball
Cannot touch ball with hands Cannot touch ball by body, only blowing allowed
Goalie can not touch ball with his hands outside the D-box Nobody allowed in the D-box except goalie.
Ball is soft and squishy Ball very light to move with the air and bouncy.
Rope handles Rope handles
Goals on the sides Goals on the sides
1 ball Multiple balls. You chose.
Punt the ball from spot of foul. Blow the ball 1 foot from penalty box or from spot
of foul.
Punt ball for goal kicks. Short side boundaries. Punt ball 1 foot from penalty box. No boundaries.
This sport can be played with less number of people and in smaller spaces. It is similar to
soccer with following modifications.

12. TEAM SOLUTION 3: BOUNCY BOXES
Criteria Bouncy Boxes
Field Rectangular
Teamwork Good amount
Gear for Players Blindfold
Items for Game • Boxes
• Colored Sticker
• Point Switches
This game can be played with much less people(down to one!) and is very flexible according to
astronaut's preference. This game is unique so we could not match it with another game.

13. TEAM SOLUTION 4: PUSH ME
• This is like Zero-G soccer except the person is the ball.
• You have to push the person that holds the ball, not kick him.
• There is extra padding on walls and people.
• The objective is the same.
• The person with the ball is not on anybody’s team.
• No pulling. That will result in penalty. Penalties are were you put the
person in the spot of foul and push him.

14. TESTING AND EXPERIMENTING
The challenge for us to create a game in Zero-G is that we do not have physical
experience of how Zero-G affects the game in space. To overcome these challenges, we
talked to experienced professionals who work in that field, and they gave us their
feedback and ideas.
We read and watched videos and articles about astronauts experiences in zero gravity.
We think using models will help us learn about how Zero-G will impact the game and the
players in space. Some examples where we can simulate and test the games are:
• Virtual reality, Zero-G Simulator, video game, Holo-lens, 3D Model/prototype
Some things that we would like to experiment with are
• Materials: Ex. Soccer ball, handles, coating and padding on walls
• Change of rules to increase amount of physical activity
• Size of field and number of players
• Ball types and effect of Blowing

15. SHARING
• We shared our ideas with Kanita Rauniyar, Game developer from Nintendo. We
discussed how we can test these games using Video games where we can control
physics, or VR or in Zero-G simulator.
• We presented our ideas to Fernmarie Rodriguez, who worked as Flight Director at Zero
Gravity Corporation for 12 years. She has taken more than 300 zero-g flights and has
first hand experience of being in zero gravity and we learnt a lot about how it feels.
• Shared on Tweeter and Facebook with 100+ professionals, astronauts, space agencies.
Received reply from Canadian Space Agency and First.org retweeted our tweet.

16. SOURCES
• Video, NASA. “International Toys in Space: Jump Rope.” YouTube, YouTube, 15 May 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km-
vj6f3TPo&index=4&list=PLiuUQ9asub3Ru9GIOTbZFRa4f2R_kM0tx.
• Video, NASA. “International Toys in Space: Soccer.” YouTube, YouTube, 15 May 2013,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ayhuejk88CE&list=PLiuUQ9asub3Ru9GIOTbZFRa4f2R_kM0tx&index=12.
• Video, NASA. “International Toys in Space: Hockey.” YouTube, YouTube, 15 May 2013,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT_nNTA7EC0&index=13&list=PLiuUQ9asub3Ru9GIOTbZFRa4f2R_kM0tx.
• Video, NASA. “International Toys in Space: Lacrosse.” YouTube, YouTube, 15 May 2013,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF8Sgu5lUNQ&list=PLiuUQ9asub3Ru9GIOTbZFRa4f2R_kM0tx&index=14
• Malik, Tariq. “The Future of Space Sports.” Space.com, Space.com, 8 Mar. 2016, www.space.com/5282-future-space-sports.html.
• David, Leonard. “Zero-Gravity Sports Are Close to Reality.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 9 Dec. 2005,
www.nbcnews.com/id/10396560/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/zero-gravity-sports-are-close-reality/#.W-uhsnpKjxU.
• David, Leonard. “Space Sports Closer to Reality.” Space.com, Space.com, 8 Mar. 2016, www.space.com/1855-space-sports-closer-reality.html.
• Magazine, Works That Work. “Zero-Gravity Games: How Astronauts Play in Space.” The Unexpected Success of the Boeing 747 by Ed Van Hinte (Works
That Work Magazine), https://worksthatwork.com/9/zero-gravity-games-how-astronauts-play-in-space.
• “How We Could Build a Moon Base TODAY – Space Colonization 1.” YouTube, YouTube, 16 Sept. 2018, https://youtube/NtQkz0aRDe8.
• Malik, Tariq. “The Future of Space Sports.” Space.com, Space.com, 8 Mar. 2016, www.space.com/5282-future-space-sports.html.
• Bing, Microsoft, https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=playing+sports+in+zero+gravity&view=detail&mid=
F9F9B8A6F99053F10851F9F9B8A6F99053F10851&FORM=VIRE.
• David, Leonard. “Zero-Gravity Sports Are Close to Reality.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 9 Dec. 2005,
www.nbcnews.com/id/10396560/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/zero-gravity-sports-are-close-reality/#.W-uhsnpKjxU.
• 20 Jobs That Will Be Replaced by Technology, www.msn.com/en-za/video/sport/usain-bolt-tries-sprinting-in-zero-gravity/vi-BBNfAvO.
• Wainwright, Peter. “Orbital Sports Stadium.” Space Future, www.spacefuture.com/archive/orbital_sports_stadium.shtml.
• Malik, Tariq. “Astronauts Hold Winter Olympics in Space.” Space.com, Space.com, 8 Mar. 2016, www.space.com/7946-astronauts-hold-winter-olympics-
space.html.