Centrifugal Homepage

Question: If centrifugal force applies in space and a rotating spaceship can simulate gravity?

(Posted by: Anti theist on 2009-11-16 02:18:42)

Why are they carrying out tests to see the affects of weightlessness on the human body for a possible trip to Mars? Surely they don't need to. Or am i the first person ever to have though of this idea? I don't think so!

Posted by: David on 2009-11-16, 05:21:52

Any spaceship that rotated to simulate gravity would probably have to have a tether and counterweight system. otherwise a spinning ship with a relatively small diameter would screw with your inner ear, causing disorientation. this would mean some fancy engineering, and hugely escalating cost for a mission to mars. i think any mission should be fast, which means nuc power source, and ion engines. we know a year in space without gravity is possible , so a six month mission is conceivable. anything else involving the outer planets(jupiters moons, etc.) would require engineering on a level we haven,t attained yet. i personally like the asteroid rendezvous mission. putting a transponder on apophis would be cool.

Posted by: Krysoprase on 2009-11-16, 02:21:30

They won't be building a rotating spaceship. It is too big and too expensive.

Posted by: Timbo is here on 2009-11-16, 02:24:11

If the space ship rotates to create gravity then it will have to be so much larger to accomadate the fact that there would have to be walking surfaces that are not requires now. The "gravity " would vary being at its strongest at the outer limits of the craft and nil arounf the centre of rotation. Just never going to be a workable solution is it.

Posted by: man on 2009-11-16, 02:24:17

Why not magnetic floors with tin suits

Posted by: eelfins on 2009-11-16, 02:28:11

I've heard that for a Mars mission, instead of a big centrifuge they can just split the ship in half, connect them with a tether, and spin them. That will give each one gravity.

Posted by: Bag of Hammers on 2009-11-16, 03:46:29

Not by a long shot. I believe NASA actually did tests with two things in space tied together with a cable to simulate gravity but the cable broke, or something. You can find something about it in Robert Zubrin's "The Case for Mars ". Zubrin says it's a good idea and would be far healthier for astronauts. Even if it was only half an Earth gravity it would probably be better than no gravity at all. Maybe NASA is worried about the extra stresses on a spacecraft and the fact it would have to be more strongly built and therefore heavier.

Posted by: Kes on 2009-11-16, 05:20:47

A rotating spaceship need not simulate the full strength of earth's gravity to be useful and there may be chambers at the center of rotation with nil simulated gravity as well as walkways at the rim where simulated gravity is maximum. The affects of weightlessness (or near-weightlessness) for long trips must be assessed for health and safety. Even patients on earth who are bedridden begin to lose bone mass and muscles atrophy due to lack of exercise. On earth, just walking around (subject to earth's gravity) is healthy exercise and exercise machines may be needed in space to maintain health.

Posted by: Michael on 2009-11-16, 06:37:43

This exact idea was proposed by proponents of a manned Mars mission, the craft would rotate at about 3rpm which would simulate a reasonable approximation of Martian gravity. and at the same time NASA was advocating a decades long, multi billion dollar program to study the ill effects of zero g on the human body. so the manned Mars people said look just spin the craft and problem solved. and the NASA response was, i'm not kidding "we can't do that, all our data will be for zero gravity ". don't look for logic in a bureaucracy