ARTIFICIAL GRAVITY

Part 1

We can't envision how living would be without gravity since the absence of it would significantly change the manner in which we see life. As an outcome, we can't grasp on the idea of a planet without gravity. A micro-g environment has proven to be detrimental to astronauts’ overall health. One of the most damaging factors is associated with weightlessness which in the long term takes a huge toll on the musculoskeletal system. Thus, the vast majority of space explorers have experienced bone decalcification, at a rate of 1-2% per month in order to correct the electrolyte balance, resulting in bone mass to diminish, making them vulnerable to impacts. Additionally, loss of muscle tone represents an unfortunate effect of the lack of gravity. Contrary to expectations, the 120-130 day long journey from Earth to Venus, short and even harmless in appearance , still impacts the astronauts’ lives, from a physical and psychological perspective , as the human body our isn’t wired in such way to bear micro-g conditions. Therefore, we took into account two possible solutions in order to make artificial gravity. A first possibility to solve the issue would be to use gigantic spinning disks to create artificial gravity through centrifugal forces. Also, spaceships ought to be of a circular shape and to continuously spin. The centrifugal approach was supported by the understanding that if you spin an object quick enough, it will equal the gravitational acceleration of about 9.81 m/s2 at sea level, thanks to the centrifugal forces acting upon it . However, the larger drawback is that once you produce artificial gravity this way, the people on board will get sick. What happens is that, when a ring is spinning, an astronaut placed in it, will be shoved. Basically, it will result in their feet going at a speed higher than their head’s. This phenomenon is called the Coriolis Effect .We can take the case of a seated astronaut who suddenly stands up; his head is supposed to move vertically, however as the upper part of the body has a linear velocity and is being stirred to a location where it requires a lower linear velocity, the astronaut will find himself falling forward as his head attempted to move quicker than it should have, so as to keep the angular velocity constant. Additionally, the angular velocity should be limited to around 2rpm (0.209 rad/s) in order to keep the gradient between feet and head to a minimum. Therefore, since we will require a larger amount of artificial gravity, we will also need a bigger radius. To simulate Earth’s gravitational acceleration, we will need the angular velocity formula to determinate de minimum radius.

This means the diameter of the disk should be of about 450m, which would be very costly. By comparison, the first settlement in space, ISS, has 5m in diameter. But ISS doesn’t have artificial gravity as its scope is to house experiments concerning micro-gravity; therefore there is no need to create artificial gravity on ISS. However, On Aphrodite, we need to create artificial gravity in order to maintain human life. Designing a centrifugal spin around the axis of the settlement would have its limitations, as we need to make sure that artificial gravity must be present everywhere except at the spin axis. This makes expansion of the settlement over time difficult to perform. For a comfortable journey, with no damaging effects in the long run, we need to find a way to get used to the lack of gravity, a little trick , thus one of the most practical and facile method of obtaining it while transiting is through installing “gravitational rooms” on the ships. Basically, the inhabitants will spend a couple of hours daily in them, in order to combat the bad effects of the lack of gravity in the span of the 120 days, from Earth to Venus. The prototype of the artificial gravity machine made consists of a metal platform, like a hospital bed, installed in a centrifugal machine with a variable rotational speed. The resemblance of this machine to a vortex or Montagne Rousse from an amusement park is rather obvious, but unlike those that make people feel dizzy and disoriented, this prototype has the opposite effect, helping the human body to adapt to the effects of micro-gravity.