Why dont they put astronauts sleeping quarters in centrafuges, so that low gravity wont detriment their health

Question

Why dont they create sleeping pods emplaced in the shuttle walls that will rotate and generate centrifugal force that mimicks earth gravity while the astronauts sleep in them? That way the astronaut's health wont be detriment by zero gravity during rest. Why dont they do that?

What are the harmful side-effects?

What do you mean by protected?

Im not talking about an entire part of the ship rotating, iam talking about pods the size of tanning beds that rotate.

Answer 1

They could...but it's all about expenses...

- To drive the centrifuge you need a motor
- To drive a motor you need more electricity
- To generate the electricity you need more solar panels
- To have more solar panels you need to lauch more payloads into space
- To lauch more payloads into space you need more rocket fuel and more rockets.
- To build more rockets you need more money.

Plus astronauts can excercise on bikes anyway, and the centrifuge size is limited - the larger the size, the more energy needed to drive it.

Answer 2

The shuttle would wobble of you did this. Another thing is that unless you have a really big ring different parts of your body would be heavier (that which is further from the center) and that would throw your completely out of whack.

Best scenario would be to have two parts of a ship and an interconnected conduit which would telescope out after acceleration (like a tv antennea) so that it would put two compartments (main control area, living quarters) far away from a main engine module that would weigh about the same. The telescoping part would have to be strong enough to hold them together as the whole apparatus tumbled through space after it had finished accelerating. When it was time to decelerate or do a burn of course correction, thrusters would slowly stop the tumbling effect and the telescoping conduit would retract then other support arms would swing out and latch up with each section to make sure it was structurally secure enough to take the stress the thrust would create

This kind of ship would be built in space and used for interplanetary travel. I imagine there would be some kind of sliding module that would stay at the center of gravity between the two main modules and would hold landers and extra supplies, equipment. You couldn't land a ship like this either.

Answer 3

Nobody is certain that the centrifuge would have a positive effect.
There is sketchy proof that the actual chemical rates of reaction may change when that far from the Earth's surface. The human body - so used to the Earth's surface, doesn't manage its enzymes well enough to respond to this bias of chemical function. This results in calcium loss among other maladies.
The more reasonable answer is that centrifuges are expensive to launch and maintain without pressure leaks at the seals: air is an important commodity on the space station. I expect that eventually we will add the spinning quarters for convenience and comfort, but for now, comfort is sacrificed for efficiency and expansive properties.

Answer 4

The simple answer is that they'd get dizzy. To avoid this, the "centrifuge" would have to be 100's of meters in diameter to get 1 g at a slow enough spin rate. This could be accomplished by attaching the living quarters to a weight by a long rope and spinning the assembly. This is an option for a long space journey, but not on the International Space Station since it's been sold as a microgravity platform.

Answer 5

Well first, it's not economically feasible right now. Also, I don't think it'd help enough to justify the cost. From what I understand, low g's lower bone density and atrophy muscles. How would sleeping in an artificial gravity help to the degree to make it a necessity? I think there have been ideas to make the entire ship rotate to create gravity 24/7...

Plus, the pods themselves couldn't just rotate, that'd create motion sickness. It has to be a bigger wheel.

Answer 6

The problem with this idea is that (as per Isaac Newton), for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If the centrifuge spins in one direction, the rest of the ship would end up spinning in the opposite reaction unless it had rockets that were constantly on to counteract this. For a spaceship or spacestation of reasonable size, the velocity of spin would also have to be quite considerable to give anything approaching Earth-like "gravity."

Answer 7

Artificial gravity has never been protected and it has bad side effects.

Answer 8

Velcro works just fine and it is dirt cheap.