Low G effects on permanent space dwellers

From: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Douglas May

> 1. I'm a little concerned about spin gravity. If I were
> in space staring at Earth or Saturn or something, I would
> rather not see it incessantly spinning around.

I don't think it's the case that in any of the peer-reviewed space
habitat designs one could look upward and look out a window at Earth or
the Moon. Certainly not in the case of the Stanford Torus with its
chevron shields or the Bernal Sphere with its shielded windows. I'm not
even sure about the O'Neill Cylinder.

> Perhaps I just need to get over it though. I'm not exactly
> sure I can picture how fast 2-3 RPMs would be.

The TV show Babylon 5 showed us one scene where the POV was rotating at
about 1 RPM. It was a space battle which suddenly and unexpectedly
broke out close to a passenger ship, and the footage was supposedly shot
from the passenger ship out a window by a news cameraman who happened to
be aboard. It had already been established that these type of passenger
vessels rotating for artificial gravity. I noted with interest that
looking at a scene while rotating at 1 RPM did not seem particularly
dizzying.

> I would hope that any station has a stable viewing platform
> where one could Earth gaze without spinning.

I'd count on it.

Regards,

Mike Combs