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I thought artificial gravity was science fiction. Is that seriously being studied? I'm guessing they just are going to spin some kind of space capsule ala Space
by leorocky 12y ago
I thought artificial gravity was science fiction. Is that seriously being studied? I'm guessing they just are going to spin some kind of space capsule ala Space Odyssey 2001? What else would they be doing? Not generating any kind of artificial gravitational waves with a magical flux capacitor.
- danielweber 12y agoYes, spin the craft. NASA's policy has been to never[1] do it, and instead say "but we've been studying microgravity for decades!" We need experience in maneuvering and setting up a spinning craft and also playing through its failure modes. [1] They did it exactly once, from my memory, but I forget the details.
- Crito 12y agoSpinning the craft is the easiest way. Spinning the craft around another craft that is tethered to it is better, though more difficult. Basically the tether gets you a longer axis, which makes it more comfortable for humans. There has been some experimentation with this, such as during Gemini 11 when they did it very slowly with an Agena, but there needs to be more work with it.