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Centrifuge on the moon and mars
Space colonies have been seriously proposed as far back as the 1970s
by engineers and scientists like Gerard ONeill http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_K._O'Neill who built large vacuum chambers for particle accelerators. And in fiction as far back as the 1920s - by John Bernal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._D._Bernal Nearly all these space colonies rotate on their axes to produce a form of artificial gravity through centrifuge action http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrifuge And this has been proposed in space to produce artificial gravity for interplanetary trips. Either by tethering spacecraft together and causing them to spin around their common center http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_11 Or by building a small rotating cabin within the vehicle, as depicted in some science fiction movies http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...centerfuge.jpg Well, what about the use of a centrifuge on the surface of a low- gravity planet to produce 'earth normal' gravity? At 1/6th gee, adding another 5/6th gee with a centrifuge is possible. Or on mars bringing 1/3 gee up to a full gee with a centtrifuge is possible as well. So, why not do it? Why confine cnetrifuge to zero gee use only? Imagine a transparent spherical pressure vessel 250 m in diameter on the surface of the moon. The sphere sunk into the ground 50 m. At ground level there is ring 200 m in diameter. This is a maglev type system, that supports a cylindrical wall 150 m tall, and attaches to another 200 m diameter ring in the sphere above. The cylindrical wall is made to rotate at 110 kph. Anyone standing on the interior of the rotating cylinder will feel 1 gee of force pointing 9 degrees from vertical. It will feel to them as if they're on a gently sloping surface. Constructing floors and buildings at this slight angle - in steps - would create a 1 gee environment. At the base of the moving wall there is lip set at 9 degrees from vertical. Inside this lip is a set of concentric cone segments forming concentring set of rings - also supported and driven by magnetic forces - that move slightly slower then the wall and each ring moves slightly slower than the ring before it. These are about 1 meter wide and change their angle relative to vertical so that at the speed they're operating a person standing on the ring feels gravity pulling them normal to the surface of the ring. A person standing on the floor of the dome can easily walk across these moving slidewalks increasing their speed from zero to 110 kph, and into the one gee field. In the design I have prepared there is a conical vaned structure forming a ceiling over the rotating cylinder, that rotates along with it. This structure allows light into the interior whild managing air flow and noise. In this way those moving on the centrifuge surface feel only a gentle continuous breeze not a gale force wind! The center of the dome is depressed below the 'access ring' and a low gravity fountain is the central feature of the dome's low gee interior. This keeps the air moistened and clean and controls odors. The fountain shoots up to the top of the dome over 220 m above the fountain level and hits the vanes. These act like fans and disperse the water into five well defined 'water falls' on the 'upper' end of the cnetrifuge. The water noise provides a pleasant backdrop to the operation of the rest of the machinery. The 100 m water falls hit the centrifuge forming a 'ring river' on the upper section. This ring river is suitable for swimming. The river drains into five separate channels along the length of the cylinder interior. The channels drain out of the 'bottom' falling below the lower lip, and are ejeted out to a catchment around the outside of the base. Access to the dome is through a ramp riunning underneath the cylinder at the fountain level - through an airlock to the outside, or to another pressurized space. Water in the catchment is returned to the fountain by five return channels - along the sides of the access ramps underneat - The 200 m low gee section surrounding the fountain (3.1 hectares) is built up commercially. The 150 m by 628 m area (9.43 hectares) is mostly residential with some commercial space. |
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Centrifuge on the moon and mars
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Centrifuge on the moon and mars
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Centrifuge on the moon and mars
Fred J. McCall writes:
wrote: wrote: :snip : At 1/6th gee, adding another 5/6th gee with a centrifuge is possible. : Or on mars bringing 1/3 gee up to a full gee with a centtrifuge is : possible as well. : : So, why not do it? Why confine cnetrifuge to zero gee use only? : :Becuase the marginal gain is very small when compared to the excessive :cost. : Unfortunately, I'm not sure we actually know that. Things like bone loss seem to scale based on percentage of gravity you're feeling, so long term human habitation at 1/6 g may not be healthy without doing something like centrifuging. Bone loss seems to depend *not* on gravity as such, but on load on the bones. Gravity is just the simplest way to achieve that. Note that the best emulation of bone loss in microgravity is done by just laying in bed for a long time here on earth... Having a centrifuge in which the astronauts just sit around (or using it only for the sleeping period as some suggest) would achieve nothing or nearly nothing. You would need to spend the larger part of your active day in it, actually doing things, walking around, lifting equipment and so on. Jochem -- "A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery |
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Centrifuge on the moon and mars
On 10 May, 15:52, wrote:
Space colonies have been seriously proposed as far back as the 1970s by engineers and scientists like Gerard ONeill http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_K._O'Neill who built large vacuum chambers for particle accelerators. And in fiction as far back as the 1920s - by John Bernal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._D._Bernal Nearly all these space colonies rotate on their axes to produce a form of artificial gravity through centrifuge action http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrifuge And this has been proposed in space to produce artificial gravity for interplanetary trips. Either by tethering spacecraft together and causing them to spin around their common center http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_11 Or by building a small rotating cabin within the vehicle, as depicted in some science fiction movies http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...centerfuge.jpg Well, what about the use of a centrifuge on the surface of a low- gravity planet to produce 'earth normal' gravity? At 1/6th gee, adding another 5/6th gee with a centrifuge is possible. Or on mars bringing 1/3 gee up to a full gee with a centtrifuge is possible as well. So, why not do it? Why confine cnetrifuge to zero gee use only? Imagine a transparent spherical pressure vessel 250 m in diameter on the surface of the moon. The sphere sunk into the ground 50 m. At ground level there is ring 200 m in diameter. This is a maglev type system, that supports a cylindrical wall 150 m tall, and attaches to another 200 m diameter ring in the sphere above. The cylindrical wall is made to rotate at 110 kph. Anyone standing on the interior of the rotating cylinder will feel 1 gee of force pointing 9 degrees from vertical. It will feel to them as if they're on a gently sloping surface. Constructing floors and buildings at this slight angle - in steps - would create a 1 gee environment. At the base of the moving wall there is lip set at 9 degrees from vertical. Inside this lip is a set of concentric cone segments forming concentring set of rings - also supported and driven by magnetic forces - that move slightly slower then the wall and each ring moves slightly slower than the ring before it. These are about 1 meter wide and change their angle relative to vertical so that at the speed they're operating a person standing on the ring feels gravity pulling them normal to the surface of the ring. A person standing on the floor of the dome can easily walk across these moving slidewalks increasing their speed from zero to 110 kph, and into the one gee field. In the design I have prepared there is a conical vaned structure forming a ceiling over the rotating cylinder, that rotates along with it. This structure allows light into the interior whild managing air flow and noise. In this way those moving on the centrifuge surface feel only a gentle continuous breeze not a gale force wind! The center of the dome is depressed below the 'access ring' and a low gravity fountain is the central feature of the dome's low gee interior. This keeps the air moistened and clean and controls odors. The fountain shoots up to the top of the dome over 220 m above the fountain level and hits the vanes. These act like fans and disperse the water into five well defined 'water falls' on the 'upper' end of the cnetrifuge. The water noise provides a pleasant backdrop to the operation of the rest of the machinery. The 100 m water falls hit the centrifuge forming a 'ring river' on the upper section. This ring river is suitable for swimming. The river drains into five separate channels along the length of the cylinder interior. The channels drain out of the 'bottom' falling below the lower lip, and are ejeted out to a catchment around the outside of the base. Access to the dome is through a ramp riunning underneath the cylinder at the fountain level - through an airlock to the outside, or to another pressurized space. Water in the catchment is returned to the fountain by five return channels - along the sides of the access ramps underneat - The 200 m low gee section surrounding the fountain (3.1 hectares) is built up commercially. The 150 m by 628 m area (9.43 hectares) is mostly residential with some commercial space. Up to this sort of scale it seems possible, though it might still be too small to provide 1g without nausea. 2rpm is above the current "safe design" limit for nausea, though of course we don't know till we do some useful experiments (likewise the need for this - maybe humans can breed in 0.38g). Given that, the design seems more complex than a freefall colony and is only possible because you build in a 9 degree "non-rising slope". This would be a curious feature. On Mars, given the presence of Phobos and Deimos, I'd say why bother - why not just build a cylinder around Deimos and if you get pregnant of out of shape (I admit the former is unlikely) you just go and spend a year in cylinder (or torus). IIRC Larry Niven called this confinement. |
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Centrifuge on the moon and mars
On May 10, 3:27 pm, Alex Terrell wrote:
On 10 May, 15:52, wrote: Space colonies have been seriously proposed as far back as the 1970s by engineers and scientists like Gerard ONeill http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_K._O'Neill who built large vacuum chambers for particle accelerators. And in fiction as far back as the 1920s - by John Bernal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._D._Bernal Nearly all these space colonies rotate on their axes to produce a form of artificial gravity through centrifuge action http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrifuge And this has been proposed in space to produce artificial gravity for interplanetary trips. Either by tethering spacecraft together and causing them to spin around their common center http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_11 Or by building a small rotating cabin within the vehicle, as depicted in some science fiction movies http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...centerfuge.jpg Well, what about the use of a centrifuge on the surface of a low- gravity planet to produce 'earth normal' gravity? At 1/6th gee, adding another 5/6th gee with a centrifuge is possible. Or on mars bringing 1/3 gee up to a full gee with a centtrifuge is possible as well. So, why not do it? Why confine cnetrifuge to zero gee use only? Imagine a transparent spherical pressure vessel 250 m in diameter on the surface of the moon. The sphere sunk into the ground 50 m. At ground level there is ring 200 m in diameter. This is a maglev type system, that supports a cylindrical wall 150 m tall, and attaches to another 200 m diameter ring in the sphere above. The cylindrical wall is made to rotate at 110 kph. Anyone standing on the interior of the rotating cylinder will feel 1 gee of force pointing 9 degrees from vertical. It will feel to them as if they're on a gently sloping surface. Constructing floors and buildings at this slight angle - in steps - would create a 1 gee environment. At the base of the moving wall there is lip set at 9 degrees from vertical. Inside this lip is a set of concentric cone segments forming concentring set of rings - also supported and driven by magnetic forces - that move slightly slower then the wall and each ring moves slightly slower than the ring before it. These are about 1 meter wide and change their angle relative to vertical so that at the speed they're operating a person standing on the ring feels gravity pulling them normal to the surface of the ring. A person standing on the floor of the dome can easily walk across these moving slidewalks increasing their speed from zero to 110 kph, and into the one gee field. In the design I have prepared there is a conical vaned structure forming a ceiling over the rotating cylinder, that rotates along with it. This structure allows light into the interior whild managing air flow and noise. In this way those moving on the centrifuge surface feel only a gentle continuous breeze not a gale force wind! The center of the dome is depressed below the 'access ring' and a low gravity fountain is the central feature of the dome's low gee interior. This keeps the air moistened and clean and controls odors. The fountain shoots up to the top of the dome over 220 m above the fountain level and hits the vanes. These act like fans and disperse the water into five well defined 'water falls' on the 'upper' end of the cnetrifuge. The water noise provides a pleasant backdrop to the operation of the rest of the machinery. The 100 m water falls hit the centrifuge forming a 'ring river' on the upper section. This ring river is suitable for swimming. The river drains into five separate channels along the length of the cylinder interior. The channels drain out of the 'bottom' falling below the lower lip, and are ejeted out to a catchment around the outside of the base. Access to the dome is through a ramp riunning underneath the cylinder at the fountain level - through an airlock to the outside, or to another pressurized space. Water in the catchment is returned to the fountain by five return channels - along the sides of the access ramps underneat - The 200 m low gee section surrounding the fountain (3.1 hectares) is built up commercially. The 150 m by 628 m area (9.43 hectares) is mostly residential with some commercial space. Up to this sort of scale it seems possible, though it might still be too small to provide 1g without nausea. 2rpm is above the current "safe design" limit for nausea, though of course we don't know till we do some useful experiments (likewise the need for this - maybe humans can breed in 0.38g). Given that, the design seems more complex than a freefall colony and is only possible because you build in a 9 degree "non-rising slope". This would be a curious feature. On Mars, given the presence of Phobos and Deimos, I'd say why bother - why not just build a cylinder around Deimos and if you get pregnant of out of shape (I admit the former is unlikely) you just go and spend a year in cylinder (or torus). IIRC Larry Niven called this confinement.- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - I don't buy that its difficult or costly or especially tricky. I tried to find an old picture from the 1950s showing a drum that you paid a nickel and got into and then when it spun up the floor dropped out of it. This was pre-litigatoin days for America! haha.. So, we didn't have fancy couches like in the ride below; http://www.fundacion.telefonica.com/...magenes/92.jpg But you basically had a motor and a drum and walked in on a floor that was attached to a hydraulic cylinder. The whole shebang was on the end of a hydraulic arm that swung you up through 90 degrees while you were spinning. God help you if the spinning stopped in that atitutde! haha.. or if the wheel broke loose! lol. Probably explains why its no longer in service. lol. I recall as a kid filing into the thing see photos probably taken in the 30s or 40s - of people sitting at a table and chair having tee - sitting as pretty as you please on the wall! lol. Some people got sick, most didn't get nauseous as all. I guess not having practical experience with rides like this makes it seem special dangerrous or difficult. It seems to me with modern maglev technology and computer controls, a 200 m diameter system that moves around at a stately 2 rpm - would be easily adapted to. and no more difficult to build than a skyscraper today. Probably less expensive since you don't have to pump air and such through each of the rooms. And while the steps to level out the gee forces may sound weird when talked about here in practice the slope is far less than that found in most San Francisco street scapes - and they use the same technique; http://leblog.exuberance.com/images/...nFrancisco.jpg And here little cable cars will take you half-way to the stars! lol. Also in San Francisco 9 hectares is quite a sizeable piece of real estate! Since 9 hectares enclosed by a pressure vessel, and sits on top of 3 hectares while little to obscure it - the economics would be quite favorable when compared to a domed region without a rotating 1 gee surface. So, I would argue the economics favor this sort of development - and the costs are about the same as building a multi-story structure within the dome - while the openess of the design permits a city scape like feel. Again very similar to San Francisco http://www.indospectrum.com/digimage...bard_base2.jpg This following program is dedicated to the city and people of San Francisco, who may not know it but they are beautiful and so is their city this is a very personal song, so if the viewer cannot understand it particularly those of you who are European residents save up all your bread and fly trans love airways to San Francisco U.S.A., then maybe you'll understand the song, it will be worth it, if not for the sake of this song but for the sake of your own peace of mind. Strobe lights beam create dreams walls move minds to do on a warm San Francisco night old child young child feel alright on a warm San Francisco night angels sing leather wings jeans of blue Harley Davisons too on a warm San Francisco night old angels young angels feel alright on a warm San Francisco night. I wasn't born there perhaps I'll die there there's no place left to go, San Francisco. Cop's face is filled with hate heavens above he's on a street called love when will they even learn old cop young cop feel alright on a warm San Francisco night the children are cool they don't raise fools it's an american dream includes indians too |
#7
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Centrifuge on the moon and mars
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