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Artificial gravity breaks free from science fiction
Artificial gravity has long been the stuff of science fiction. Picture the wheel-shaped ships from films like 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Martian, imaginary craft that generate their own gravity by spinning around in space.
Now, a team from CU Boulder is working to make those out-there technologies a reality.
The researchers, led by aerospace engineer Torin Clark, can't mimic those Hollywood creations—yet. But they are imagining new ways to design revolving systems that might fit within a room of future space stations and even moon bases. Astronauts could crawl into these rooms for just a few hours a day to get their daily doses of gravity. Think spa treatments, but for the effects of weightlessness.
[...]"Astronauts experience bone loss, muscle loss, cardiovascular deconditioning and more in space. Today, there are a series of piecemeal countermeasures to overcome these issues," said Clark, an assistant professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences. "But artificial gravity is great because it can overcome all of them at once."
[...] In a series of recent studies, [they] set out to investigate whether queasiness is really the price of admission for artificial gravity. In other words, could astronauts train their bodies to tolerate the strain that comes from being spun around in circles like hamsters in a wheel?
The team began by recruiting a group of volunteers and tested them on the centrifuge across 10 sessions.
But unlike most earlier studies, the CU Boulder researchers took things slow. They first spun their subjects at just one rotation per minute, and only increased the speed once each recruit was no longer experiencing the cross-coupled illusion.
[...]The personalized approach worked. By the end of 10th session, the study subjects were all spinning comfortably, without feeling any illusion, at an average speed of about 17 rotations per minute. That's much faster than any previous research had been able to achieve. The group reported its results in June in the Journal of Vestibular Research.
Clark says that the study makes a strong case that artificial gravity could be a realistic option for the future of space travel.
"As far as we can tell, essentially anyone can adapt to this stimulus," he said.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday July 07 2019, @07:08PM (5 children)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautilus-X [wikipedia.org]
Pretty cheap and important experiment compared to the cost of the ISS, but nowhere to be found. Probably won't be sent up before ISS is deorbited, probably won't be included with LOP-G.
We could have had a years-decades headstart on this.
To reduce the downsides, make it bigger or slower (less than 1g).
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Monday July 08 2019, @02:19AM (2 children)
Would definitely have been "decades" if they hadn't let Skylab fall.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Monday July 08 2019, @03:48AM (1 child)
The space-shuttle external tanks reached 99% of orbital velocity, and usually had sufficient left over fuel to make it the rest of the way. There were serious proposals to use them to build a space-station. It would have been a huge station, for very low cost. NASA said no for pointy-haired reasons.
http://www.astronautix.com/s/stsexternaltankstation.html [astronautix.com]
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 08 2019, @11:44AM
I think part of the reason was .. it might highlight how silly the shuttle was for some missions.
The shuttle was great for many things. The arm it had, the ability to capture and then work on satellites, specialized modules .. all that was great, even with the silly design changes and cuts prior to deployment.
But, while the shuttle ran, the US Air Force launched a relentless litany of rockets from Cape Canaveral. Rocket, after rocket, after rocket.
So much cheaper than the shuttle. More efficient. No massive turn around time.
In many ways, the shuttle program was a failure. Excessively costly for one.
So, if you knew the above.. and you then suggest that the shuttle becomes almost unused? I mean, you'd be launching sometimes to get the tank up there, then use the shuttle to get it into position, then what.. return?
Why not just use a normal rocket OH Wait what happened tot he Sat Vs? All political...
So I must say that the pointy haired reasons made sense... unless you want to embarrass...
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 09 2019, @06:06PM (1 child)
Nautilus X? I lower you this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrifuge_Accommodations_Module [wikipedia.org]
Plenty of time, money and resources spent about/for colonies on Mars but no money to actually start scientific experiments to figure out whether Mars G really is enough...
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday July 09 2019, @08:31PM
Thanks. Another forgotten missed opportunity (I have seen it before, but I remember Nautilus-X).
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