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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 JoeMerchant on Monday July 08 2019, @11:48AM (6 children)
If you're foolish enough, take a ride of a Gravitron and while you're at 24RPM try rotating your head, like tuck your chin into your chest. The effect is... unpleasant.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Monday July 08 2019, @04:37PM (5 children)
Yeah, at 24 rpm, you are sitting at about 3G.
Lots of things are going to be uncomfortable / disorienting.
I'm suggesting that it would be reasonably comfortable at 1/2G @ 4 rpm.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday July 08 2019, @05:43PM (4 children)
I agree that it would be less dramatic at 1/6 the strength, but... I wonder how many MORE astronauts are going to have serious problems keeping their lunch down if their ride is a perpetual low grade tilt-a-whirl?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Wednesday July 10 2019, @01:11AM (3 children)
Might be less than you think. A small fractional G might significantly alleviate zero G sickness. Plus that article we're discussing says they showed success at acclimatizing people to a low spin rate...
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday July 10 2019, @11:52AM (2 children)
That's a low spin rate in a full 1G field... not exactly the real deal.
It might be easier to acclimatize than zero g, particularly when you stay still, but that gyro effect when your turn your head inside the rotating frame is going to be hard to ignore.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Saturday July 13 2019, @08:32PM (1 child)
Fair enough; surely you agree think its worth investigating?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday July 13 2019, @09:45PM
Worth investigating, and even worth doing if it's not physically debilitating for 100% of people who try it. Going to Mars and back is a long trip outside the magnetosphere, if we can at least reduce some of the hazards and hassles of the environment it's worth doing.
The real screening test would be aboard an orbital station - if you puke your guts up for 72 hours straight there, probably not good for you to spend months in the spin-box on the way to Mars.
🌻🌻 [google.com]