10-20-2015, 10:35 AM
(10-20-2015, 07:22 AM)JoeStrout Wrote: Well, you should read the Globus & Hall paper. It includes a lot of research from the 80s, which of course nobody would have known about in 1978. But please do share your thoughts on it!
And I'll see if I can get either of those guys to jump into the discussion here.
That's excellent, thank you! The main thing that would concern me about the data from those studies is that the test subjects all appear to be members of the armed forces, who will, of course, tend to be fitter than average. Given we're talking about space settlement, then ultimately we're talking about the infirm and very old and young as well, who may be affected differently. And thinking about it, I'd expect short people to suffer less negative effects than tall ones (because the apparent gravity gradient from head to foot would be lower, plus their heads would be that bit further from the axis of rotation)
It'll certainly be interesting to see what happens when some actual in-orbit research into this is done!