Russia will be the first to develop an artificial gravity system aboard its orbital station, ROSS.

Photo: Roscosmos

The effect of weightlessness looks stunning from a distance on television, as astronauts float in space; however, for the crew members themselves, weightlessness is a source of various troubles. Muscles atrophy, bone density decreases, blood production activity declines, and the immune system weakens—this is just a partial list of the issues astronauts face. Yet, Russian scientists seem to have found a solution. At a press center of "Russia Today," the director of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems, Oleg Orlov, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a Doctor of Medical Sciences, discussed the project to equip the national ROS station with an artificial gravity system.

- Currently, to maintain their fitness, astronauts spend about 2.5 hours daily on physical exercises—strength training, running, cycling—says Oleg Orlov. - Naturally, this significantly reduces the effectiveness of practical work, both in station maintenance and, most importantly, in scientific programs. Therefore, researchers worldwide—Europeans, Americans, Japanese, and Chinese—are working on artificial gravity. However, no one has yet implemented this idea aboard a real crewed spacecraft. Thus, if we succeed in placing a short-radius centrifuge (see "HOW IT WORKS?") within the target medical module of the ROS station, Russia will have a global priority. I truly hope for this, and the creators of the space complex are actively supporting us in this endeavor.

Photo: Roscosmos

HISTORY OF THE ISSUE

The creation of artificial gravity aboard a spacecraft is not a new idea. It was first articulated back in the days of Tsiolkovsky. The concept was to achieve artificial gravity through the rotation of the station or spacecraft.

- In science fiction films, we often see rotating stations, which look very beautiful and convincing, but medical professionals are skeptical about such projects, - says Academician Orlov. - While gravitational effects can indeed be achieved this way, human behavior in rotating systems is a different matter. In the past, we had a program called "Slowly Rotating Room." This was a special stand that rotated in a horizontal plane. Participants in the experiment had to live in these conditions, conduct research, perform training tests, and so on. If the room rotated at 6 revolutions per minute, participants adapted to these conditions fairly quickly. At 9 revolutions per minute, only highly trained individuals could endure living in that room. When the rotation increased to 12 revolutions per minute, only a few unique individuals, whose bodies did not react to vestibular stimuli, could remain there.

According to Oleg Orlov, the issue was not just that even trained pilots experienced motion sickness during the experiments. Often, the changes were more dramatic and led to the disruption of various brain structures.

Moreover, engineers assert that at today's level of technological development, implementing such systems is not feasible. There are specific formulas that link the gravity created within a rotating system to its radius of rotation. Calculations indicate that to create a sufficiently comfortable environment with artificial gravity, enormous rotating systems are required. Perhaps in the distant future, such structures will be developed for interplanetary travel. But for now, these projects remain pure fantasy.

However, the idea of creating artificial gravity using a short-radius centrifuge has proven to be quite rational. This has been confirmed by both ground experiments and flights of laboratory animals on the biological satellites "Bion."

HOW IT WORKS?

The first short-radius centrifuge was developed in the USSR in 1978. It had one arm with a length of 2 meters. The axis of rotation was approximately at eye level, which prevented discomfort for the users. The development proved effective, but it was decided that installing a centrifuge in orbit was impractical due to the relatively short duration of flights at that time.

First-generation short-radius centrifuge IMBP. Photo: Roscosmos

Now, conditions simulating long interplanetary flights are being modeled on orbital stations. The idea has become relevant again. A new generation centrifuge was designed in 2015, with an increased radius of 2.5 meters, and the device now features two arms, allowing two people to use it simultaneously. The cabin is now enclosed, and the centrifuge's rotation, as well as its acceleration and deceleration moments, have become so smooth that individuals do not feel the spinning. At the same time, due to centripetal acceleration, gravity at the level of the feet can reach 5 G. For comparison, the overloads experienced by an astronaut during launch can reach 7 G. This does not mean that astronauts will no longer need to exercise in space. Not at all. However, the time they currently spend compensating for the negative effects of weightlessness will be significantly reduced.

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