NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovers Bigger, Older Cousin to Earth

While Kepler-452b is larger than Earth, its 385-day orbit is only 5 percent longer.

The average lifespan in Japan is 82 years, which I will use an an across-the-board lifespan for humans.

If humans lived on Kepler-452b now, on average, their lifespan would adjust to about 78 Keplerian years.

Depending on the density of Kepler-452b, the gravitational pull could be greater [due to 60% increase in size] or weaker.

According to NASA’s Ames Research Center’s expert on humans in space, a person has survived 2x Earth’s gravity for 24 straight hours without ill effects. They go on to claim that it is theoretically possible for a human to adapt to a gravity environment that is between 2x and 3x that of the Earth. However, they say that at 4 times Earth’s gravity (4G) or above, human physiology cannot maintain sufficient blood-flow to the brain.

Due to the studied effects of lack of gravity in space, a converse situation in which higher gravity is involved would possibly result in "shorter and stockier" beings. If humans colonized Kepler-452b, evolution (or artificial selection) may cause the colonists to also become shorter, stockier, and more robust to deal with the greater strain of higher gravity.

Over time you could expect evolution to help, bones would thicken. Height would decrease, people might even move back towards shorter legs and great-ape-style 4-legged movement.

Let's take a look at the first humans that would colonize Kepler-452b.

Lets say an adult male weighs 80kg on earth.

In 2g they would weight 160kg at 3g 240kg.

Those are starting to be serious weights, you could still move but it would be an effort. Assuming you were fed enough you would build up serious muscle strength but you can still expect bones and joints to feel the strain. The heart and lungs would need to work harder, bed sores would develop faster.

Even minor trips and falls would become much more serious, a simple trip could easily lead to multiple broken bones and a slip on the stairs could be fatal. In fact there would be unlikely to be stairs and certainly no ladders.

Sleep would be a problem and floating in water with a breathing device might become a popular way to sleep. Swimming would certainly be a popular recreation as the water would support your weight (you should still be buoyant).

Pregnancy would be a major risk, even on earth people experience back trouble and other pain from the weight. Even if the pregnancy proceeded normally (and I'm not aware of any studies that would provide evidence either way on that) there would be a high risk of injury and mishap.

The environment would be placing a constant strain on you, so you can expect lifespans to be shortened (weak hearts would be fatal, bones tend to weaken as you age).

So the immediate conclusion is that young healthy adults would survive. Everyone else is in trouble. (Source)

/r/space Thread Parent Link - nasa.gov