Cheapest way to make artificial gravity?
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One of the very early 1930's German designs for a space station had a series of separate water tanks around the the rim of the rotating station. As people and equipment moved about the station water would be transferred from tank to tank, balancing the station on it's axis.
Them Hun is smart.
You mean maintain a constant acceleration equivalent to Earth gravity for half the trip then flip the ship around and apply the same acceleration for the other half? It's doable but I think the hard part would be maintaining constant acceleration. Probably feasible for trips inside the solar system but not for anything interstellar--once you get up to a good fraction of c it becomes very energy-intensive to keep accelerating.
^We probably never will have the capacity to make that practical, not using any currently conceivable drive technology. Something exerting that much thrust would be a real gas-guzzler, and so you'd have to carry that much more weight of fuel, which would make it heavier and require still more fuel to push it, and so on.
However, I believe I've read that a magnetic sail technology, a charged loop of wire generating a magnetic field pushed against by a charged particle beam, could potentially get quite a high acceleration without the ship needing to carry any fuel at all (beyond whatever power source was needed to charge the sail). Of course, you'd need an equivalent decelerating beam at the other end.
However, I believe I've read that a magnetic sail technology, a charged loop of wire generating a magnetic field pushed against by a charged particle beam, could potentially get quite a high acceleration without the ship needing to carry any fuel at all (beyond whatever power source was needed to charge the sail). Of course, you'd need an equivalent decelerating beam at the other end.
It seems like it's just too much trouble to worry about artificial gravity for long trips. There are straightforward ways to do it for space stations but not vessels on extended flights. Might as well just find a way to protect the passengers and then accelerate/decelerate at whatever rate you want rather than muck about with artificial gravity.
That is entirely not the reason the OP's would wobble. The OP is using two offset centers of gravity. Inherently unstable.
It would if we could do it.
Except for a few ion-engined probes that ran a few years at a ten-thousandth of a gee, the longest we've ever gotten a manned spacecraft engine to burn is about 10minutes.
Yeah, ten whole minutes...
Is there any way of making a suit for living inside ships that has feet that magnetize or some other method of attaching itself to the 'floor' and the suit as a whole partially work against the movement of the astronaut to simulate gravity in that way/generally make the crew exert more force to move about, so the muscles get more of a constant workout? Or would it be too complex to pull off?
You mean like this?
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/11/05/gravity.space.suit/index.html
As for sticking to the floors, Skylab used velcro I think. I know they also tried shoes that could be "locked in" to positions in the floor.
^Yeah, I read about those "gravity-loading" suits. But it's important to note that they have nothing to do with "sticking to the floor." That's not needed. It's more to do with compressing the body to simulate the pressure that gravity puts on the skeleton and muscles.
Different sections of Skylab had different types of foot restraint, so the crews could assess which worked best for them (in the same way, some sections were fitted out with a definite sense of up and down, like a room on Earth, while others had equipment all the surfaces. The crews found the later disorientating).
Aside from velcro, I think there were mushroom shaped sole studs, which slotted easily into floor grid, but didn't hold the astronaut steady, and triangular cleats, which locked into place and worked best (so long as you remembered to unlock before trying to float off...).
Yes, exactly like that
And again, a far more elegant solution to the problem by NASA than what I imagine 
Yeah, that's much simpler than magnetised boots.
I think I was concentrating on the concept of combining the movement required to move around as if on a gravity world and the 'strain' of the same thing, so that the crew keep a consistent style of motion between surface and zero-g activity.
Since they now have these new pressure suits, perhaps a method of moving around which forced them to move their muscles more, like some kind of tethering system would help. Brings a whole new meaning to 'wearing drag'. However it wouldn't solve the bone density loss problem.
Except that Einstein was wrong.
If I move further away from a source of gravity, then I feel the gravity less. A good example of this is at a black hole. A person falling feet-first into a black hole will experience a stronger pull on his feet than his head.
But in an accelerating spaceship, my head and feet feel the same amount of "gravity".
Given that the two can be differentiated, the two can't be considered interchangable.
The difference to the human body, though is on a micro level, which is what we're talking about here. Anything which tricks the heart and the bones into thinking they are working under gravity will do the trick.
That is true. The problems I see with that design is the tether. We have seen in the past when a tether has snapped in space. so lets say they do that, tether holds out good for a month or two, then snaps. It could send you ballistic in a different direction, also the jerking motion of the ship could injure the people inside. And as people have pointed out low-gravity inhibits stem cells, which stop or slows healing.
Is there a different system than a tether that could be used?
The one thing about having a object left on mars for months without anyone there, is the crazy sand storms on mars which could damage that fuel craft. I think in general its a good idea though. But maybe the reason to wait for the moon first is to use it as a base to launch a vehicle to mars, which wouldn't have to carry as much fuel to leave Earth's field and head toward Mars. It could be that we put a laser on Moon and the Mar's vehicle uses solar sails, which means it wouldn't have to carry much fuel, save the room for different stuff.
The suit could be a viable solution to cure the symptoms or ease at least the symptoms of zero-gravity. But test have been done that show the spinning could make the crew ill, so a suit may just have to do that.
Is there a different system than a tether that could be used?
The one thing about having a object left on mars for months without anyone there, is the crazy sand storms on mars which could damage that fuel craft. I think in general its a good idea though. But maybe the reason to wait for the moon first is to use it as a base to launch a vehicle to mars, which wouldn't have to carry as much fuel to leave Earth's field and head toward Mars. It could be that we put a laser on Moon and the Mar's vehicle uses solar sails, which means it wouldn't have to carry much fuel, save the room for different stuff.
The suit could be a viable solution to cure the symptoms or ease at least the symptoms of zero-gravity. But test have been done that show the spinning could make the crew ill, so a suit may just have to do that.
^A solar sail for a trip to Mars by a crewed vehicle is impractical. The distance is too short. The acceleration of a sail based craft is slllooowww. By the time you get any real speed up, you could have gotten there much faster by other means.
You really do need to read up on solar sails. I suggest wikipedia as a good starting point.
You really do need to read up on solar sails. I suggest wikipedia as a good starting point.
Really? I heard the opposite -- that Skylab astronauts quickly got accustomed to working in weightlessness, and that most of them preferred the section that was laid out for maximum use of available space regardless of whether equipment was mounted on the “floor,” “walls” or “ceiling.”
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