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ARTIFICIAL GRAVITY HUMAN HABITATS

The space environment has significant unrealized and unrecognized opportunities for research, manufacturing, discovery, and industry.  Yet, that environment also poses stiff challenges that hinder the realization of potential opportunities. And with human habitation, balancing the advantages and hurdles of operating in a weightlessness environment is particularly critical. Gravitational variability—from microgravity (μg) to hypergravity—may be one of the most potentially exploitable solutions for operations, research, and manufacturing.
 
Artificial gravity through rotation was first proposed in 1883, by the Russian rocket scientist Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky. Decades before human space flight was a reality, designs for artificial gravity systems using rotational structures were proposed—many experts believed that humans could not survive in the weightlessness of space. However, today we know humans can survive in zero G. In fact, the overwhelming majority of human space experience has been in weightlessness, which does have definite damaging effects on human physiology and performance if left unaddressed by actions to counter them.
 
This report, “A Review of Challenges & Opportunities: Variable and Partial Gravity Human Habitats in LEO,” reviews the literature and discusses the implications for creating artificial variable gravity habitats for humans in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and cis-lunar space (between the Earth and the Moon). 
 
This 100 Year Starship study is authored by Ronke Olabisi, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, Irvine and Mae Jemison, M.D. Principal 100 Year Starship in Houston, TX. The work is the result of collaboration between Olabisi Labs and the 100 Year Starship. 

Download the Report here!