We all know the pictures of the astronauts on the ISS floating around. We also suspect that a lack of gravity is bad for the body as the muscles go weak and such.

Why don't spaceships just rotate to cause the effect of artificial gravity through centrifugal forces?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [S] 3 points 7 months ago* (6 children)

interestingly bigger ships would have to rotate faster than small ships to achieve 1g btw

this is due to smaller ships having a larger curvature so less velocity is needed

edit: no wait i just did the maths again and you're right. smaller ships need lower absolute velocity of the outside walls, but angular velocity is higher.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] 18 points 7 months ago (5 children)

    Yes, but the smaller the ship, the worse the Coriolis force will be. Imagine a 10m corridor with opposing gravity on each end, and no gravity in the middle. Travelling across would be extremely disorienting.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] [S] 5 points 7 months ago (4 children)

    i think that would be so much fun!

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    Now I'm thinking about how much force you would need to be able to jump high enough to hit escape velocity on your side, do half a flip, and land on the other...

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] [S] 3 points 7 months ago* (2 children)

    I did the calculation somewhere else in this thread, the outer walls of the spaceship (diameter 9m) would rotate with 24 km/h, so if you run really fast, you can outrun the rotation and start to float.

    Edit: a healthy adult should be able to sprint 100 m in 15 seconds, which is precisely 24 km/h. Source.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Ooh! I didn't think about outrunning the rotation! Seems like there'd be a curve to your speed there as each bit of acceleration would make you lighter, making it easier to run... Like the rig they used in the marvel movies to make Captain America outrun everyone.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment