The artificial gravity from the fiction book/movie 2001 created by spinning the whole spaceship; would that be somehow feasible ? What technical hurdles keep it in the fiction domain ?

launching that much mass up there is the big drawback.

 

oh, and if you don't want the rest of the ship to spin in the other direction then you need a contrarotating system of equal angular momentum.

The physics is well founded, the engineering will be problamatic.

 

As insane_alien has stated, launching such a thing from Earth may be impossible. One way around that could be to build it in space or on the Moon. Bulding a "ship yard" in space or on the Moon is, by themsevles a huge engineering feat.

I think we just havent' had any craft big enough to spin. The ISS is pretty big, but it was built (and is still being built) in a modular way over many years, each stage being functioning in itself. So a spinning ring isn't practical.

 

But I agree, except for getting everything into orbit, there aren't really any technological hurdles.

 

As an aside, one other idea that doesn't involve a whole ring is a habitat connected by a tether to a counterweight. They could spin around one another, creating a "down" that is outwards.

Thanks.

Yes, launching a large structure is not even to consider; it would be modular put together as the ISS is.

 

I see no need to counter rotate a portion of it.

 

The tethered way may not need a useless counterweight, just another module; which would be like two self functioning opposite sections of an unfinished 'ring'

 

((-----⊕-----))

 

The tether ----- being a laboratories duct instead, transitable between quarters ))

Would this provide full range of desired gravity to microgravity selection zones depending on distance from the axis ?

 

So there is not much part of that fiction that hides a physics flaw? Thanks.

Edited December 22, 200916 yr by Externet

oh, and if you don't want the rest of the ship to spin in the other direction then you need a contrarotating system of equal angular momentum.

 

The ship may be spun by using fuel, in which case you don't need a contrarotating system. Or is there a reason not to do that?

well, typically you only want the hab section to spin. this is because you want your navigation and other systems to remain nice and stationary so they can work easier. if they're spinning then you need to deal with a moving lock on your navigation stars and a sophisticated reaction control and manouvering system to be able to make mid course corrections without having to stop the rotation.

 

also, with just the hab sections spinning, you can use electricity from solar panels instead of reaction mass.

 

and again, if the whole ship is spinning you have some wierd gyroscopic effects which is the purpose of the contrarotating section, that nullifies the gryoscope effects.

well, typically you only want the hab section to spin. this is because you want your navigation and other systems to remain nice and stationary so they can work easier. if they're spinning then you need to deal with a moving lock on your navigation stars and a sophisticated reaction control and manouvering system to be able to make mid course corrections without having to stop the rotation.

 

also, with just the hab sections spinning, you can use electricity from solar panels instead of reaction mass.

 

and again, if the whole ship is spinning you have some wierd gyroscopic effects which is the purpose of the contrarotating section, that nullifies the gryoscope effects.

 

Like a bullet.