The discussion about spinning space stations to achieve 1g artificial gravity is well known. What about space stations with constant linear acceleration of 1g at Earth orbit /assuming we have the thrusters etc/ - are there theoretical studies in that direction? Would there be more disadvantages compared to spinning space stations /eg regarding speed - after 1 year nearly reaching the speed of light?/? I found some info here, here and here on Stackexchange, still not quite clear though...
Asked
Active
Viewed 148 times
-3
-
5It's not really a space station if it's constantly accelerating at 1g. That's a space ship. – Darth Pseudonym Apr 22 '23 at 20:21
-
4the assumption that "we have the thrusters" is like assuming magic works. Maintaining 1G linear acceleration for any significant amount of time is an enormous energy cost. – Erin Anne Apr 22 '23 at 20:28
-
1The whole reason for trying to simulate gravity with spin is that we have no feasible way to continuously accelerate at levels that would be meaningful in this regard. If we could do that, no one would be talking about spinning. – Organic Marble Apr 22 '23 at 20:41
-
1@DarthPseudonym: not just any spaceship, if you can maintain constant 1 g acceleration, you've solved the problem of interstellar travel. – Christopher James Huff Apr 23 '23 at 00:16
-
Also... the OP says "constant linear acceleration of 1g at Earth orbit" which has an intrinsic contradiction.... linear v orbit. cannot be both as an orbit is curved. Imagine the weird interplay of thrust based 'gravity' and what would be spin based 'gravity' resulting from very high orbit speed at some fixed arbitrary orbit height. Would require huge amount of thrust driving towards Earth to keep orbit rather than fly out into space. – BradV Apr 23 '23 at 01:50
-
This post: https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/63024 deals with producing 1g centripetal acceleration in a solar orbit using a solar thermal rocket. But the purpose is to accelerate the spacecraft to solar escape velocity, not to produce artificial gravity for the crew. There is enormous energy required and the scenario requires years to achieve significant "gravity" in the spacecraft. – Woody Apr 23 '23 at 05:05
-
Hi there, thank you all for the comments and especially @GremlinWranger for the provided sources. – sea_for Apr 23 '23 at 05:06
1 Answers
0
If by 'theoretical studies' you mean science fiction, yes. All rockets buildable by humans are limited to about 15 minutes of thrust if sustaining at 1G, and would end up looking like since they are mostly fuel. If we had access to higher performance rockets then yes, it would be possible to side step 0G issues by remaining under thrust and basically hovering in place.
Since any rocket capable of just a couple of days worth of 1G is also an highly effective weapon launcher and even just parked hovering peacefully at 1G most concepts produce enough hard radiation to sterilize the surface below disadvantages of the concept include 'End of Human Civilization'.
GremlinWranger
- 22,391
- 1
- 56
- 87