Did you know that on average, Mercury is really the closest planet to Earth? Despite not being our neighboring planet because those are Venus and Mars, due to how orbits work, Mercury spends more time closer to Earth than any of those other two planets.
Mercury is also one of the four planets that have a solid, rocky surface. This means that theoretically, a human could walk on the Mercurian surface if they had the proper equipment to withstand the extreme temperatures and lack of breathable atmosphere on the planet.
So, that begs the question, how much would you weigh on Mercury?
On Mercury, you would weigh approximately 40% of your current weight on Earth. This means that a person that weighs 70 kilograms (154 lbs) on Earth would weigh approximately 26 kilograms (57 lbs) on Mercury.
This is great news for any possibility of a manned mission to Mercury in the distant future. In order to survive the rough conditions of the Mercurian surface, a person would have to wear a very heavy spacesuit to protect them.
To give you an idea of how heavy astronaut suits are, the spacesuits that the Apollo astronauts used to walk on the Moon weighed about 163 kilograms (360 pounds) on Earth. Thankfully, on the Moon that weight was reduced to just 27 kilograms (60 pounds) which is still a lot, but it is manageable.
To precisely calculate your weight on Mercury you can use a simple rule of three that factors in the difference between the force of gravity on both planets.
The following calculator simplifies the process.
Weight on Mercury calculator
If you want to skip the calculation, just fill out the following calculator. The dropdown lets you switch between kilograms and pounds.
Click “calculate” to get the result below.
Weight on Mercury formula
The formula to calculate your weight on Mercury is as follows:
WMercury = (WEarth / 9.81) * 3.7
WMercury: Weight on Mercury
WEarth: Weight on Earth
The other two numbers are the force of gravity on each planet and it is given in meters per square second (m/s2). The force of gravity on Earth is 9.81 m/s2 and on Mercury, it is approximately 3.7 m/s2.
