Leonov II

> On Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 2:17 AM, ERandall wrote:
> (...)
> > 2) How little simulated gravity would be necessary to mitigate the more
> > debilitating effects of prolonged weightlessness.
>
> We really don't have studies on the effects of fractional g, only
> microgravity. However, since the astronauts would have to cope with
> Martian gravity anyway, I think that it would make sense to use
> Martian gravity in the way to Mars. Back to Earth, an interesting
> approach might be starting with Martian gravity and then slowly going
> up to Earth gravity, so that the crew would arrive on Earth
> "reabilitated" to the normal weight in their homeworld.

Definitely makes sense for a Martian mission, for space settlements though studying the different levels makes sense, and lower would seem better for starters. 1/20th g I've seen before, but 1/8th g would be a good start in my opinion, because several of the moons of Jupiter have similar gravities and knowing how we handle that gravity will tell us if they will work for humans in the future, and by default all higher gravity bodies in the solar system as well. Moon, Mars, Mercury, etc.
Brooks