"Henk Boonsma" wrote:
The thing I like about the ship is the spinning gondola. I've been
advocating for years that NASA should stop all research on trying to
find a
'medicine' that alleviates the bone and muscle loss and instead focus
on
artificial gravity using spinning wheels or gondolas. It would also
remove
the need for a lot of other research, such as how to operate on
someone in a
zero-g environment.

How is technology equipped to support the mechanical connection of the
rotating centrifuge and 'stationary' main structure? The connection
must (I presume) include a ring-bearing large enough to enclose a
human-sized passageway between the sections (two, in fact, if the
habitable sections extend both sides of the connection point), the
connection must be made leak-proof and there ought to be a gyroscopic
counter-provision (thrusters being impractical for long periods) to
counteract both the effects of spinning wheel and any 'leak-back' of
rotational energy due to the inevitable friction...

I've always been wary about connections between spinning and
non-spinning components of space-habitats/vehicles (except perhaps such
as in the filmed 2001[1] where both the shuttle and Odyssey appear to
have internally-maintained centrifuges, presumably fully-contained
within a pressurised 'inner' skin...

[1] I forget the details in the book...