In article ,
"Johnson.." wrote:

I have been doing a little reading today about artificial gravity and
haven't seen magnetism mentioned at all. This may sound stupid but couldn't
the floor of a spacecraft be magnetized and the crew wear suits that would
be attracted to that floor? They could instead wear wrist and ankle bands
for more freedom of movement.

As you mention, it would take huge amounts of power. Simply spinning the
craft would produce gravity that does not consume any power at all. (but
you need something big enough that the required rotation rate is fairly
low)

Plus, you then have a strong magnetic field throughout the interior.
This can be quite bad for some equipment, even if it's a constant field
rather than an alternating one. And if you're doing it to prevent bone
loss, you'll want waits on the wrists, waist, shoulders, etc...magnetic
feet would pull you toward the floor, you want to be pushed onto the
floor. When you have a magnet strong enough to exert 1G of force on your
"weights" at waist height, think of what getting up after a fall would
be like. Or what the fall itself would be like. On earth you're far
enough from the center of gravity that the gradient as the gravity falls
off with distance is unnoticeable, this would not be the case here.

Also, even if it helps prevent softening of bones, it will do nothing to
your vascular system...your major bones might stay pretty strong, but
your heart will still be pumping your blood through microgravity.

--
Christopher James Huff
http://home.earthlink.net/~cjameshuff/
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