Scientists suggest possible solution to space-induced bone loss One of the foremost health risks for astronauts may have a cure en route. A specially-formulated medication has been shown to prevent bone loss in mice, and perhaps humans, aboard the International Space Station. According to the team from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Forsyth Institute in Cambridge, …
It's long past time we spun something up in orbit to test whether centrifugal artificial gravity can actually counteract these (and other) microgravity effects. The whole "humans to Mars and beyond" concept is a lot more viable if it works.
Coriolis effects and other weirdness from rotation mean that you'd have to build big and rotate slowly. Don't think we can fund Babylon 5 (1km diameter rotating once per minute (yes, I'm geek enough to have measured that from the videos (and calculated that it gives a close enough result across 30 levels))) just yet.
Yeah rotation radius is important to get the spin speed at or below 1RPM, which is generally accepted as the perceptible motion limit for most people. Depending on where you look on the web, calculations vary from around 200m to over 900m.
But you don't have to build a Bab5 sized station to get that effect. A pair of small habitats separated by a long tether is enough. Spin up the pair around the centre of the tether. Same effect for minimal build mass (and associated fab/launch/deploy/maintain costs and complexities).
That's enough to prove/disprove validity. If it pans out, scale up to larger, connected habs, and eventually fully cylindrical stations (O'Neill cyclinders etc.) from there. Attach big rocket motors and you have ships with artificial gravity. In theory, at least.
Many, many such proposals over the last several decades. NASA doesn't seem interested, which is a bit surprising but I guess their budget is too small so they have to prioritise. At this rate the Chinese or Musk will do it first (actually there are proposals to thether a pair of Starships in bolas formation and spin 'em. Once Starship can launch without annihilating its launch pad and RUDing itself mid-flight, that is - rocket engineering is hard and it's early days for Starship).
Hmm. A bunch of the early graphics on B-5 were done on Amigas with Video Toasters. I didn't have a Toaster, but my guess is that they didn't do 1080P resolution. So, blu ray would require upscanning. Might mess up the pattern done on the Vorlon ships. I've had B-5 on DVD for years, and with the strikes on in Hollywood, it might be time to play them again. Either that or continue on with "Murder She Wrote".
You're probably right but one of the interesting things about Babylon 5 was watching the graphics steadily improve over the run. Pretty ropey at the beginning but by the end as good as any physical model work.
According to various sites, a B5 reboot is in pre-production, eg here but there's been pretty much nothing heard since, especially since the Warner/Discovery merger, which saw a lot of cancellations even of high profile already running projects, so I'm not holding my breath.
On the other hand, if it does come to pass, then I hope to be pleasantly surprised since "Series creator J. Michael Straczynski is writing the pilot and will return as showrunner and executive producer"
Most likely it would work but of course we need data to prove it.
Just how hard would it be to make a 'habitat ring' that spins, for the ISS ? Gyro-stabilized and/or dual counter-rotation to overcome effects of friction and minimize the need for stabilizing thrusters...
Single-rotor helicopters need tail rotors. So a solution for friction (and rotation/mass changes) on rotating artificial gravity would need to be able to produce some kind of counter-torque.to stabilize it.
That effect is due to using mechanical means (motor) to rotate mass (rotor) - of course the "... equal and opposite reaction..." effect kicks in.
Possibly using something like balanced ion thrusters around the outer edge might do it - since the reaction is limited to the thruster location/angle and not a centralized mechanical mechanism.
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