For the life of me I can't visualize how this would with in practice at all.
There are pictures in the article of their test setup with someone running on the wall which might help
Horizontal running inside circular walls of Moon settlements
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Re: Horizontal running inside circular walls of Moon settlements
#12I didn't see any mention of having a spinning surface.
A tapered cylinder "gravity gym" with adjustable angled walls, and variable speed spinning, could smoothly create much greater "gravity".
Spin gravity would also enable body weight exercises, core exercises, stationary or small area cardio like exercise bikes, VR games, yoga, etc. Even sleeping.
EDIT: I missed this:
> but Moon-based centrifuges allowing locomotion inside would pose technical challenges
Still think it will be inevitable. Far more useful physically and psychologically. "Spinning surface" is a simple challenge, compared to "low-g health deterioration" and "bored to death of running in circles".
Equipment like this might resolve issues with off-world childbearing. Time to "spin up" some space rabbits and see what we get! (Hopefully not tribbles.)
Spin areas will surely become ubiquitous in all low gravity colonies.
Startup anyone?
Re: Horizontal running inside circular walls of Moon settlements
#13For the life of me I can't visualize how this would with in practice at all.
It would look a lot like the circular running track in SkyLab: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiMq-fdRhLo
But probably on a slight angle so the sum of the centripetal force and the moon's gravity is along the body axis.
Or perhaps a bowl shape that you climb up the sides of as you speed up.
Re: Horizontal running inside circular walls of Moon settlements
#14For the life of me I can't visualize how this would with in practice at all.
Probably something like this guy running out of a ditch: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cfXTElHLT_I
Re: Horizontal running inside circular walls of Moon settlements
#15Whenever I see horizontal running I thought of Sir Humphrey and the Christmas special.
Re: Horizontal running inside circular walls of Moon settlements
#16For the life of me I can't visualize how this would with in practice at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5yislIOui8
A carnival show where a motorcycle rides inside a conical well.
In lunar gravity you can probably do (some of) it without the motorcycle.
Re: Horizontal running inside circular walls of Moon settlements
#17I didn't see any mention of having a spinning surface. A tapered cylinder "gravity gym" with adjustable angled walls, and variable speed spinning, could smoothly create much greater "gravity". Spin gravity would also enable body weight exercises, core exercises, stationary or small area cardio like exercise bikes, VR games, yoga, etc. Even sleeping. EDIT: I missed this: > but Moon-based centrifuges allowing locomotio…
You probably know this already, but for a while people were toying with the idea of a "childbirth centrifuge". https://patents.google.com/patent/US3216423A/en
There's probably a reason it never caught on.
Re: Horizontal running inside circular walls of Moon settlements
#18It takes a few clicks to get to the supplemental data movie:
https://rs.figshare.com/articles/media/a_participant_running...
You'd probably want to switch directions often!
Re: Horizontal running inside circular walls of Moon settlements
#19I didn't see any mention of having a spinning surface. A tapered cylinder "gravity gym" with adjustable angled walls, and variable speed spinning, could smoothly create much greater "gravity". Spin gravity would also enable body weight exercises, core exercises, stationary or small area cardio like exercise bikes, VR games, yoga, etc. Even sleeping. EDIT: I missed this: > but Moon-based centrifuges allowing locomotio…
You know you have to fly all this stuff up there, right? You can dig out one of these pits with a shovel.
Re: Horizontal running inside circular walls of Moon settlements
#20I didn't see any mention of having a spinning surface. A tapered cylinder "gravity gym" with adjustable angled walls, and variable speed spinning, could smoothly create much greater "gravity". Spin gravity would also enable body weight exercises, core exercises, stationary or small area cardio like exercise bikes, VR games, yoga, etc. Even sleeping. EDIT: I missed this: > but Moon-based centrifuges allowing locomotio…
I assume they’ll eventually just build a big gravitron. The seals would be tricky (I guess the axle it spun on could contain a ladder and door?)
Of course they could simply stop spinning it whenever they needed to open an airlock.
(Or just put it in orbit, where these problems are easier to deal with and you don’t need to deal with day/night radiation shielding/heating.)