Comment Re:Zero-G is bad long term, but what about 1/6-G? (Score 3, Informative) 109
You hit the nail on the head: this is perhaps the most fundamental unanswered question in life support for space exploration. We simply have no idea.
Originally, the ISS was slated to have a module called the Centrifuge Accommodations Module. It was intended to help answer this question. It contained a large centrifuge that could hold 2-foot-tall animal cages and simulate anywhere from zero to 2g. It would have been one of the most essential experiments on the station, because there is really no way to collect data on varying levels of microgravity on living organisms other than putting a centrifuge in zero g. Unfortunately, the (mostly assembled) module was cancelled in 2005.
The engineering implications for interplanetary missions are profound, in that it might be vastly more expensive to build a 1g artificial gravity centrifuge than, as you said, a 1/6g one. But we currently have absolutely no way of knowing how many Gs we need. It's a very tough problem.
Originally, the ISS was slated to have a module called the Centrifuge Accommodations Module. It was intended to help answer this question. It contained a large centrifuge that could hold 2-foot-tall animal cages and simulate anywhere from zero to 2g. It would have been one of the most essential experiments on the station, because there is really no way to collect data on varying levels of microgravity on living organisms other than putting a centrifuge in zero g. Unfortunately, the (mostly assembled) module was cancelled in 2005.
The engineering implications for interplanetary missions are profound, in that it might be vastly more expensive to build a 1g artificial gravity centrifuge than, as you said, a 1/6g one. But we currently have absolutely no way of knowing how many Gs we need. It's a very tough problem.
