Gravity on a spaceship

Question

What if you lined the lower hull of a spaceship with osmium metal plating, would enough osmium plating create enough pull to simulate earths gravity?

This wouldn't be "simulating" Earth's gravity but reproducing it. You're basically taking the Earth on the journey with you... — Przemek D, Jun 05 '18 at 07:05

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 04 '18 at 07:19

3

You need a LOT of material to create natural gravity. Earth weighs ~10²⁴ kg, so that's the ballpark figure you need to create 1 g.

answered Jun 04 '18 at 07:19

Hobbes

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score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 04 '18 at 11:47

Suppose you stand on the surface of a sphere of material of average density $\rho$ (and that the density distribution inside the sphere is spherically symmetric) then the mass increases in proportion to $\rho r^3$ so the surface gravity increases as $\rho r$ (inverse square law). Since Osmium is roughly four times denser than the Earth, you could need a sphere of it $1/4$ the size of the Earth. You might gain a small factor by making it a different shape but it will still need to be hundreds or thousands of kilometres in size. So not really anything you could call "plating".

Gravity on a spaceship

2 Answers2