Spin Me Up, Scotty!
Science fiction has introduced us to certain technologies, the realization of which now seem overdue. I am talking about flying cars, humanoid housekeeping robots, and, yes, artificial gravity. We have been reading and talking about them for decades, but they are really not part of our lives yet. The first two I have to admit are still out of reach due to some technical hurdles, but the third isn’t.
Today I found in my inbox a link to an article on artificial gravity, and it got me thinking. Why aren’t we building spinning habitable spacecraft? The author points out the number of health issues facing astronauts during long-duration space flight that could be solved by an artificial gravity system. We are currently spending a lot of resources to overcome the problems in other ways, but if we want to get to Mars sooner rather than later, perhaps we should, as the article suggests, undertake more research on artificial gravity.
It seems pretty simple. Spin up a system of masses and create centripetal force. Of course, the system can’t spin too fast or the astronauts would become ill. Motion inside the system would also need to be properly compensated. But hey, this is a dynamics problem that definitely isn’t out of reach.
Money is always a limiting factor. There are competing interests demanding their share of the pie. Yet, with the current pace of certain advances, I wonder if perhaps Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey could be safely updated to the year 2101.
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