jenks@uiucdcsp.cs.uiuc.edu (11/14/86)
/* Written 11:12 am Oct 31, 1986 by henry@utzoo.UUCP in uiucdcsp:sci.space */ /* ---------- "Re: The vestibular system in rotati" ---------- */ >> There has been some discussion about rotating space colonies lately, >> mostly concerned with the reliability of bearings. My recollection >> was that the idea of rotating structures to produce pseudogravity was >> out because of problems with Coriolis forces and the human vestibular >> system. I have not seen this point made in print... > >If you check out Gerry O'Neill's original book "The High Frontier" >(1978?), you will see it in print. The problem has been known since >quite early in the history of the space-colony concept. This is why >O'Neill's definitive large-colony designs spin at 1 RPM or less. This >does make for troublingly large structures; he suggested that a small >first colony, with crew selected for resistance to such problems, might >be able to spin at 2-3 RPM. -- > Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology > {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry /* End of text from uiucdcsp:sci.space */ How about a small colony at the end of a l-o-n-g tether? Put your labs at the other end, and a micro gravity environment in the middle. This would provide the necessary radius for "artificial gravity" without the huge structure. -- Ken Jenks jenks@p.cs.uiuc.edu {ihnp4!pur-ee}uiucdcs!uiucdcsp VAXing Poetic At Univ. of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign