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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday July 07 2019, @04:56PM   Printer-friendly
from the not-so-merry-go-round dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4463

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.


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  • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday July 08 2019, @06:58AM (5 children)

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Monday July 08 2019, @06:58AM (#864378) Journal

    g = w^2 r

    g ~ 10 m/s^2

    w = 2*pi*17/60 s^-1 ~ 1.7^2

    r = g/w^2 ~ 3 m

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
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  • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday July 08 2019, @06:59AM (4 children)

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Monday July 08 2019, @06:59AM (#864379) Journal

    Oops, the 1.7^2 should have been 1.7/s^2.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday July 08 2019, @07:00AM (3 children)

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Monday July 08 2019, @07:00AM (#864380) Journal

      Err, I should drink some coffee … of course it must be /s (without the ^2).

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
      • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday July 08 2019, @11:45AM (2 children)

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday July 08 2019, @11:45AM (#864421)

        This is why I don't do math for random strangers on the internet, particularly when the board doesn't allow editing...

        So, I'm interpreting your gibberish to mean a radius of ~3m would give ~1g for 17rpm - that is pretty impressive, 17rpm at 3m radius is about 4 miles per hour, roughly a fast walk around a 20' diameter circle - hardly seems like that should generate a full g of outward centrifugal "force."

        --
        🌻🌻 [google.com]
        • (Score: 2) by TheSage on Monday July 08 2019, @01:08PM (1 child)

          by TheSage (133) on Monday July 08 2019, @01:08PM (#864453) Journal

          A radius of 3m at 17 rpm gives 3 * 2 * pi * 17 meter per minute which is roughly 20 km/h - the speed of a reasonably fast bicycle.

          • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday July 08 2019, @01:20PM

            by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday July 08 2019, @01:20PM (#864459)

            This is why I don't do math for random strangers on the internet

            And, right you are... close to 12mph. I suppose I somehow dropped the 3 when I was calculating 3 * 6.28... 4mph certainly didn't seem fast enough to generate 1g, but I can see 12mph in a tight circle needing 45 degrees of lean on a bike.

            --
            🌻🌻 [google.com]