From: jeff.findley@ugs.nojunk.com   
      
   "Steen"  wrote in message   
   news:440f1f2d$0$60787$157c6196@dreader1.cybercity.dk...   
   > Von Fourche wrote:   
   >   
   >> My question:  are those classic looking space stations possible?   
   >> Would it be possible with today's technology to build one of these   
   >> stations that actually spins around creating gravity?  Would spinning   
   >> a big pin wheel shaped space station work?   
   >>   
   >>    What's are the negatives to such a station besides cost?   
   >   
   > 1. A rotating space station is more complicated and thus more expensive   
   > than   
   > a non-rotating.   
   >   
   > 2. One of the primary reasons for having a space station is microgravity   
   > research.   
      
   Both true.   
      
   > 3. To create any useful artificial gravity, the space station should   
   > either   
   > be prohibitively large or employ prohibitively fast rotation periods. If   
   > the   
   > station is 100 meters across, it should rotate once in 14 seconds to   
   > create   
   > 1 g, which would probably cause severe nausea. A station 1 kilometer   
   > across   
   > should have a period of 45 seconds to create 1 g.   
      
   Or you stick your station on one end of a very long cable and some big   
   weight (e.g. spent stage, empty tankage, or something) at the other end of   
   the cable and you spin the combination.  This would seem to be a possibility   
   for something like a manned Mars mission, where you really don't want your   
   astronauts spending the entire trip to Mars in zero gravity.  It would be   
   better if they were still used to 1G upon Mars arrival, so that their   
   muscles were still in peak condition.   
      
   Jeff   
   --   
   Remove icky phrase from email address to get a valid address.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)