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Originally posted by Murcielago
Originally posted by Ess Why Kay
wrong, wrong, and wrong.
We can get to Mars in 7 months, the longest a single person has being in space in over 1 year and 2 months...nearly twice as long as the Mars trip would take.
Yes, but we'd need to come back to Earth, making it 14 months.
So? Would the people come back weaker then when they left earth...Yes, would they die from it...No. and after there trip they will gradually regain much of what they lost if they work out.
However if we go to Mars, i'm sure we will have a part of the craft be artificial gravity, done by centrifugal force.
But as for "far-out" thinking concepts...my fav is the MagBeam, which could get a crew to Mars in just 45 days! so a trip there and back is a mere 3 months.
Originally posted by Murcielago
Frosty
EDIT: How long will the total voyage be for the astronauts, and does anyone know what the longest time spent in space is?
I answered both of those questions allready...good to see you read everyones posts.
Originally posted by Frosty
Centrifugal force on a mission to Mars. This is going to be hard to control. I would imagine that you would need some sort of stabalizing effect, such as another mechanical device offsetting the larger centrifugal force so the spacecraft does not fly chaotically offcourse.
It is going to be extremely cold on Mars and their will be no oxygen to breathe.
Centrifugal force on a mission to Mars. This is going to be hard to control. I would imagine that you would need some sort of stabalizing effect, such as another mechanical device offsetting the larger centrifugal force so the spacecraft does not fly chaotically offcourse.
Originally posted by jra
Originally posted by Frosty
Centrifugal force on a mission to Mars. This is going to be hard to control. I would imagine that you would need some sort of stabalizing effect, such as another mechanical device offsetting the larger centrifugal force so the spacecraft does not fly chaotically offcourse.
How would it affect the ship and cause it to go offcourse? I'm not saying you're wrong. I wasn't aware that it would affect the whole ship, if part of it was rotating.
Originally posted by kilendrial
Centrifugal artificial gravity is actually really easy to control and really easy to do. To resist drag between the spinning and non-spinning parts, you can either have the whole spacecraft spin (which has been done for half a century), or have one habitation section spin with a either direct contact between the parts (hopefully with minimal friction) or perhaps have it guided by electromagnetic forces and no contact. The electromagnetic force would not have to be very big to correct the relative alignment of the two parts without contact.
Originally posted by Frosty
Well, even if the whole vessel is rotating, wouldn't a slight enequality in the distribution of weight cause the craft to alter its trajectory? I would think so. Say for instance that the south end of the wheel is heavier than the east end, this could cause a distubance in it intentional path.
Would the astronauts even feel the affects of this centrifugal force? Might they be traveling relative to the ship already and never experience the artificial gravity?
Well, even if the whole vessel is rotating, wouldn't a slight enequality in the distribution of weight cause the craft to alter its trajectory? I would think so. Say for instance that the south end of the wheel is heavier than the east end, this could cause a distubance in it intentional path.
Would the astronauts even feel the affects of this centrifugal force? Might they be traveling relative to the ship already and never experience the artificial gravity?
What research has been conducted to suggest this?
Originally posted by kilendrial
Conservation of momentum forbids any direct alteration of trajectory because of internal movement of an object. Unless you are shooting something (particles from a rocket) permanently out somewhere else, internal workings will have an equal and opposite reaction to any action. It can alter the orientation of the aircraft which with thrust can alter the course of the spacecraft. 3-axis stabilization uses fly-wheels in the space-craft and stores whatever rotational momentum desirable in those taking it away from the spacecraft. If you have a rotating torus-shaped area for artificial gravity, and one side has more weight, you will get a pull to the heavier side because all the mass is continually “trying” to fly away, but is restrained. Stopping the parts from leaving creates a pull on the space craft. This would create a wobble in the spacecraft if the weight distribution was uneven but the rotation of the force vector will be equally in all directions over time, if uneven in a certain moment. You can compensate a few different ways. Put the rotating object at the center of mass of the over-all spacecraft so the force to a side doesn’t change the angle that the spacecraft is pointing at. You can also use pumps to control weight distribution in the space-craft and use laser telemetry to figure out in what area the weight is skewed. You can not care for the orientation of the space-craft until you apply thrust and then you just have to use thrusters to get into the right orientation. If your space-craft is big enough, it can absorb the momentum of people moving themselves and equipment around in the artificial gravity section without much change.
Would the astronauts even feel the affects of this centrifugal force? Might they be traveling relative to the ship already and never experience the artificial gravity?
What research has been conducted to suggest this?
If you have two unconnected parts of a space-craft with the same direction and velocity already, you don’t need much force to keep it that way. There is some difference in momentum, but that is small, so you don’t need much to compensate. There is solar wind, and interstellar medium drag, and that might effects parts of the ship more than others, so you have to compensate a little for that. But you only need a little bit of compensation.
Lets say you have a 150 pound person in a spinning section that simulates earth gravity, and he moves around. All the other parts of the spinning section are distributed symmetrically in weight so that the center of gravity is in line with the overall larger ship. The man moves around and you get a net 150 pounds of force in the direction that guy is on the ship (ship pushes against man at 150 pounds so that man pushes against the ship at the same amount). This might be a lot for electromagnetic forces (at power levels available in space if nuclear isn't used) to deal with in space, but it could deal with the other forces mentioned quite easily. A counterwieight of 150 pounds of water pumped around the ship into preset containers could take care of the mans weight. Also, if you have enough room between the two sections(rotating, main craft), the force of 150 pounds might not move the much larger disk/torus enough to impact the ship by the time that 150 pounds of force is applied in the opposite direction.