Rotating wheel space station
Encyclopedia
Space station
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...
that could create artificial gravity
Artificial gravity
Artificial gravity is the varying of apparent gravity via artificial means, particularly in space, but also on the Earth...
by rotating. If the station were rotated, inertia
Inertia
Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to a change in its state of motion or rest, or the tendency of an object to resist any change in its motion. It is proportional to an object's mass. The principle of inertia is one of the fundamental principles of classical physics which are used to...
and the centripetal force
Centripetal force
Centripetal force is a force that makes a body follow a curved path: it is always directed orthogonal to the velocity of the body, toward the instantaneous center of curvature of the path. The mathematical description was derived in 1659 by Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens...
would cause objects to press against the outer rim of the "wheel"; in the rotating frame of reference of the space station centrifugal force
Centrifugal force
Centrifugal force can generally be any force directed outward relative to some origin. More particularly, in classical mechanics, the centrifugal force is an outward force which arises when describing the motion of objects in a rotating reference frame...
would give an acceleration similar to gravity.
History
Both scientists and science fiction writers have thought about this concept since the beginning of the 20th Century. Konstantin TsiolkovskyKonstantin Tsiolkovsky
Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky was an Imperial Russian and Soviet rocket scientist and pioneer of the astronautic theory. Along with his followers the German Hermann Oberth and the American Robert H. Goddard, he is considered to be one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics...
wrote about using rotation to create an artificial gravity in space in 1903. Herman Potočnik
Herman Potocnik
Herman Potočnik was an Austro-Hungarian rocket engineer and pioneer of cosmonautics . He is chiefly remembered for his work addressing the long-term human habitation of space.- Early life :Potočnik was born in Pola, southern Istria, Austria-Hungary...
introduced a spinning wheel station with a 30 meter diameter in his Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums (The Problem of Space Faring). He even suggested it be placed in a geostationary orbit
Geostationary orbit
A geostationary orbit is a geosynchronous orbit directly above the Earth's equator , with a period equal to the Earth's rotational period and an orbital eccentricity of approximately zero. An object in a geostationary orbit appears motionless, at a fixed position in the sky, to ground observers...
.
In the 1950s, Wernher von Braun
Wernher von Braun
Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun was a German rocket scientist, aerospace engineer, space architect, and one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany during World War II and in the United States after that.A former member of the Nazi party,...
and Willy Ley
Willy Ley
Willy Ley was a German-American science writer and space advocate who helped popularize rocketry and spaceflight in both Germany and the United States. The crater Ley on the far side of the Moon is named in his honor.-Life:...
, writing in Colliers Magazine, updated the idea, in part as a way to stage spacecraft headed for Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
. They envisioned a rotating wheel with a diameter of 76 meters (250 feet). The 3-deck wheel would revolve at 3 RPM to provide artificial one-third gravity. It was envisaged as having a crew of 80.
In 1959, a NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
committee opined that a such a space station was the next logical step after the Mercury program
Project Mercury
In January 1960 NASA awarded Western Electric Company a contract for the Mercury tracking network. The value of the contract was over $33 million. Also in January, McDonnell delivered the first production-type Mercury spacecraft, less than a year after award of the formal contract. On February 12,...
. The Stanford torus
Stanford torus
The Stanford torus is a proposed design for a space habitat capable of housing 10,000 to 140,000 permanent residents.The Stanford Torus was proposed during the 1975 NASA Summer Study, conducted at Stanford University, with the purpose of speculating on designs for future space colonies...
, proposed by NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
in 1975, is an enormous version of the same concept, that could harbor an entire city.
NASA has never attempted to build a rotating wheel space station, for several reasons. First, such a station would be very difficult to construct, given the limited lifting capability available to the United States and other spacefaring nations. Assembling such a station and pressurizing it would present formidable obstacles, which, though not beyond NASA's technical capability, would be beyond available budgets. Second, NASA considers the present space station, the ISS
ISS
The ISS is the International Space Station.ISS may also refer to:* I See Stars, an American electronic rock band* ISS A/S, a Danish service company* Idea Star Singer, a Malayalam music reality show by Asianet TV...
, to be valuable as a zero gravity laboratory, and its current microgravity environment was a conscious choice.
In fiction
A famous fictional space station of this kind is Space Station V, which appears in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...
. The Japanese anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
Planetes
Planetes
is a Japanese hard science fiction manga by Makoto Yukimura. It was adapted as a 26-episode television anime by Sunrise, which was broadcast on NHK from October 2003 through April 2004...
has its main set in the Seven, the 7th wheel orbital station, while the 9th is under construction by 2075.
Two other examples of this type of space station are in the Re-imagined Series Battlestar: Galactica. Ragnar Anchorage in the miniseries is a three ringed weapons storage station and the civilian ship Zephyr
Zephyr
Zephyr may refer to:* A light or west wind* Zephyrus, one of the Anemoi and the Greek god of the west wind* Zephyranthes, a plant genus whose species include the zephyr lily* Zephyr , a well-known graffiti artist from New York City...
a luxury liner. Another example of a rotating space station in fictional movies is in the Zenon trilogy, in the movie "Zenon Girl of the 21st Century
Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century (film)
Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century is a 1999 Disney Channel Original Movie, starring Kirsten Storms as the eponymous heroine and Raven-Symoné; this was the first work by Symoné for Disney.-Synopsis:...
", "Zenon the Zequel
Zenon: The Zequel
Zenon: The Zequel is a 2001 Disney Channel Original Movie and the second installment of the Disney Channel's "Zenon" television film series, following the first installment, Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century, and preceding Zenon: Z3.-Plot:...
" and "Zenon: Z3
Zenon: Z3
Zenon: Z3 is the third installment of the Disney Channel's "Zenon" television film series, following Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century and Zenon: The Zequel. It was released on June 11, 2004 in the U.S. and gathered 1.03 million viewers.-Plot:...
" where 13 year old Zenon lives on a rotating space station in the year 2049
See also
- Man Will Conquer Space Soon!Man Will Conquer Space Soon!Man Will Conquer Space Soon! was the title of a famous series of 1950s magazine articles in Collier's detailing Wernher von Braun's plans for manned spaceflight. Edited by Cornelius Ryan, the individual articles were authored by such space notables of the time as Willy Ley, Fred Lawrence Whipple,...
- O'Neill Cylinder
- Space colonizationSpace colonizationSpace colonization is the concept of permanent human habitation outside of Earth. Although hypothetical at the present time, there are many proposals and speculations about the first space colony...
- Space stations and habitats in popular culture
- Space habitatSpace habitatA space habitat is a space station intended as a permanent settlement rather than as a simple waystation or other specialized facility...
- Stanford torusStanford torusThe Stanford torus is a proposed design for a space habitat capable of housing 10,000 to 140,000 permanent residents.The Stanford Torus was proposed during the 1975 NASA Summer Study, conducted at Stanford University, with the purpose of speculating on designs for future space colonies...
- WeightlessnessWeightlessnessWeightlessness is the condition that exists for an object or person when they experience little or no acceleration except the acceleration that defines their inertial trajectory, or the trajectory of pure free-fall...