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William H. Paloski, Ph. D. Human Adaptation and Countermeasures Office NASA Johnson Space Center Artificial gravity is an old concept, having gotten its start in the late in the 19th century when Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, considered by many to be the father of the Russian space program, realized that the human body might not respond well to the free fall of orbital space flight. To solve this problem, he proposed that space stations be rotated to create centripetal accelerations that might provide inertial loading similar to terrestrial gravitational loading. Einstein later showed in his equivalence principle that acceleration is indeed indistinguishable from gravity. Subsequently, other individuals of note, including scientists like Werner von Braun as well as artists like Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick, devised elaborate solutions for spinning vehicles to provide "artificial gravity" that would offset the untoward physiological consequences of spaceflight. By 1959, concerns about the then-unknown human responses to spaceflight drove NASA to consider the necessity of incorporating artificial gravity in its earliest human space vehicles. Of course, owing in part to the relatively short durations of the planned missions, artificial gravity was not used in the early NASA programs.
List of contents
The Gravity Of The Situation.- Physics of Artificial Gravity.- History of Artificial Gravity.- Physiological Targets of Artificial Gravity: The Sensory-Motor System.- Physiological Targets of Artificial Gravity: The Cardiovascular System.- Physiological Targets of Artificial Gravity: The Neuromuscular System.- Phyysiological Targets of Artificial Gravity: Adaptive Processes in Bone.- Interactions Among the Vestibular, Autonomic, and Skeletal Systems in Artificial Gravity.- Interactions Among Artificial Gravity, The Affected Physiological Systems, and Nutrition.- Artificial Gravity And The Immune System Function.- Medical, Psychological, and Environmental Issues of Artificial Gravity.- Safety Issues in Artificial Gravity Studies.- Recommended Research.
About the author
Gilles Clément received Doctoral degrees in Neurobiology from the University of Lyon in 1981 and in Natural Science from the University of Paris in 1986. Dr. Clément is currently Professor of Space Life Sciences in International Space University (ISU), Strasbourg, France. Prior to this position, he was Director of Research from the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), Toulouse, France. Research in space life sciences has been his primary focus with experiments on Salyut-7 (1982), MIR (1988), and on more than 25 Space Shuttle flights (1985 present). His research topics include influence of microgravity on posture, eye movements, spatial orientation, and cognition in humans. To date, he gathered data on more than 100 astronauts, during and after space missions on the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. Dr. Clément has written more than 100 peer-viewed research papers in scientific journals.
Summary
William H. Paloski, Ph. D. Human Adaptation and Countermeasures Office NASA Johnson Space Center Artificial gravity is an old concept, having gotten its start in the late in the 19th century when Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, considered by many to be the father of the Russian space program, realized that the human body might not respond well to the free fall of orbital space flight. To solve this problem, he proposed that space stations be rotated to create centripetal accelerations that might provide inertial loading similar to terrestrial gravitational loading. Einstein later showed in his equivalence principle that acceleration is indeed indistinguishable from gravity. Subsequently, other individuals of note, including scientists like Werner von Braun as well as artists like Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick, devised elaborate solutions for spinning vehicles to provide “artificial gravity” that would offset the untoward physiological consequences of spaceflight. By 1959, concerns about the then-unknown human responses to spaceflight drove NASA to consider the necessity of incorporating artificial gravity in its earliest human space vehicles. Of course, owing in part to the relatively short durations of the planned missions, artificial gravity was not used in the early NASA programs.
Additional text
From the reviews:
"The book has grown out of the work of the ESA Topical Team on Artificial Gravity, which issued its Final Report in 2006. … provide a useful summary of artificial-gravity research. The extent to which microgravity affects different physiological systems differently, and the complex-manner in which they all interact, was a real eye-opener to me. … This would greatly increase its value as a resource for those engaged in the planning of future human space exploration." (Ian Crawford, The Observatory, Vol. 128 (1203), 2008)
Report
From the reviews:
"The book has grown out of the work of the ESA Topical Team on Artificial Gravity, which issued its Final Report in 2006. ... provide a useful summary of artificial-gravity research. The extent to which microgravity affects different physiological systems differently, and the complex-manner in which they all interact, was a real eye-opener to me. ... This would greatly increase its value as a resource for those engaged in the planning of future human space exploration." (Ian Crawford, The Observatory, Vol. 128 (1203), 2008)
