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Why don't spaceships rotate to cause artificial gravity? (discuss.tchncs.de)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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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?

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[–] 24 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (6 children)

Basically, the spinning diameter has to be really long so the spinning doesn't make you puke long-term (Coriolis force is a bitch). There were NASA tests and studies about it, which range between a 100 and a 1000 meter diameter.
So, the ship has to be built for it from the design phase, be it with a rotating ring or a tether approach. Which we didn't have yet a usecase for (for only a few days or months):

  • For a future Mars mission, would slow acceleration and deceleration be more viable.
  • Only real fitting usecase is a orbital space station with permanent crew.
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  • [+] -17 points 7 months ago (5 children)

    usecase

    Not a word, my dude. When your spell check wants to put a hyphen or space in, let it.

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  • [–] 11 points 7 months ago

    That's the wonderful thing about a living language, if enough people start using a new word or a variation on the spelling of an existing one, it can simply become correct at a point.

    The compound variant 'usecase' is often used in tech and refers to a very specific means in which a system is utilized.

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