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| NAUTILUS-X |
While floating around in microgravity might seem like the
biggest perk of life aboard a spaceship, it’s also very bad for
your health. Astronauts can lose as much as five per cent
of their muscle mass per week in space and decreased
bone densities can take years to recover after returning
to Earth. Zero-gravity conditions also increase the fluid
pressure on the brain, which leads to eyesight problems at
the same time as reducing the total blood volume, which
causes heart muscles to atrophy. Astronauts currently on
the International Space Station exercise for two hours
every day but it’s still not enough.
Thrusters The centrifuge is set spinning by the thrust
from rockets mounted on opposite sides, like a
Catherine wheel. Inflatable The centrifuge uses a soft wall
stretched over a collapsible articulated skeleton that can be
inflated once in space. A double-walled plastic
hull filled with water could block harmful cosmic rays. A
mixture of different shielding might be needed for
missions lasting for long periods
We don’t fully understand the way that the body reacts
to microgravity yet, but it’s possible that no amount
of running on a treadmill in an elasticated harness
will substitute the universal pull of gravity. A spinning
centrifuge compartment, like the one proposed by NASA
for the Nautilus-X long-duration spacecraft, could use
centrifugal force to mimic gravity. However, it would
need to be big – even a 12-metre (39-foot) diameter ring
spinning at 10rpm would only produce 69 per cent of
Earth’s gravity. This could keep astronauts conditioned for
a trip to Mars, as its gravity is only 38 per cent of Earth’s.
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