4 ms·

Calculator for creating artificial gravity via centripetal acceleration: https://www.artificial-gravity.com/sw/SpinCalc/ https://www.artificial-gravity.com/sw/S

Calculator for creating artificial gravity via centripetal acceleration: https://www.artificial-gravity.com/sw/SpinCalc/ https://www.artificial-gravity.com/sw/SpinCalc/ Basically, we would need to make something hundreds of meters in diameter to have any hope of a comfortable living situation. This is a huge amount of mass to get into space, which is notoriously expensive, but getting cheaper every year. Maybe one day we'll hit an inflection point where this is reasonable.

zabzonk 5y ago
The very first program I ever wrote (apart from hello world) was one to do this on a Research Machines 380Z, in BASIC, back in about 1979.
jandrese 5y ago
Put in 3RPM and it spits out a 100m radius. This is big for sure, but in the same order of magnitude of the ISS. If you are willing to live with only 0.5g instead of 1g you can slow it down to 2RPM at that size and be safely within human comfort limits. That would give you a circumference of around 628m. That sounds like a lot, but if you could build it in 80m segments by bolting each segment to the outside of SpaceX Starship (which is 120m tall) that would take 8 launches to get the ring in orbit. Plus some more launches for the hub and spokes and panels and everything else of course. Still, 15-20 launches is not outside of the realm of the feasible. If there were the political will (or personal fortune) to build this it could be done.
monocasa 5y ago
To be fair, the ISS is already about 100m long, albeit not pressurized sections.
mabbo 5y ago
Not necessarily. Andy Weir's 'Hail Mary Project' describes a way you can get the best of both worlds: don't make a full ring, but spin two objects separated by cables. Split the initial station into two stations with a large number of cables connecting them securely. Now on your calculator, put in a 70m radius and a gravity of only 0.3g. All green dots. But how do you get between the halves?" you ask? I think there's a simple answer to that: have cables complete the circle. A small car riding those cables can carry you around the radius. Then over time, you add more cells until the circle is complete!
- ncmncm 5y ago
  If you give one half of the station twice the mass of the other, you can test out living in lunar gravity and Mars gravity at the same time. Maybe only one of those will turn out to be enough to stop bone loss. Maybe neither one. It would be better to know that before building a base. The zipline would be trickier to make work, then. Probably you have a gadget that walks up the tether, and then you flip around and it walks down to the other end.

zabzonk 5y ago

The very first program I ever wrote (apart from hello world) was one to do this on a Research Machines 380Z, in BASIC, back in about 1979.

jandrese 5y ago

Put in 3RPM and it spits out a 100m radius. This is big for sure, but in the same order of magnitude of the ISS. If you are willing to live with only 0.5g instead of 1g you can slow it down to 2RPM at that size and be safely within human comfort limits. That would give you a circumference of around 628m. That sounds like a lot, but if you could build it in 80m segments by bolting each segment to the outside of SpaceX Starship (which is 120m tall) that would take 8 launches to get the ring in orbit. Plus some more launches for the hub and spokes and panels and everything else of course. Still, 15-20 launches is not outside of the realm of the feasible. If there were the political will (or personal fortune) to build this it could be done.

monocasa 5y ago

To be fair, the ISS is already about 100m long, albeit not pressurized sections.

mabbo 5y ago

Not necessarily. Andy Weir's 'Hail Mary Project' describes a way you can get the best of both worlds: don't make a full ring, but spin two objects separated by cables. Split the initial station into two stations with a large number of cables connecting them securely. Now on your calculator, put in a 70m radius and a gravity of only 0.3g. All green dots. But how do you get between the halves?" you ask? I think there's a simple answer to that: have cables complete the circle. A small car riding those cables can carry you around the radius. Then over time, you add more cells until the circle is complete!

ncmncm 5y ago
If you give one half of the station twice the mass of the other, you can test out living in lunar gravity and Mars gravity at the same time. Maybe only one of those will turn out to be enough to stop bone loss. Maybe neither one. It would be better to know that before building a base. The zipline would be trickier to make work, then. Probably you have a gadget that walks up the tether, and then you flip around and it walks down to the other end.