Reduced Gravity: the 400-kilogram gorilla in the room

[JoeStrout]

I wrote to Ted Hall about this thread, and while he may jump in later, he's a bit swamped this week.  But he dashed off a quick reply, and said he wouldn't mind if I quoted him on it.  So, here we go:

Quote:My counter-argument, in brief:  The 1 RPM limit seems to be based on the

assumption that people can't adapt, or that any period of adaptation is
unacceptable.  However, we make no such demand on microgravity.  It has
been observed over decades, and accepted without hesitation, that about
half of all astronauts / cosmonauts are afflicted with "space adaptation
syndrome" that lasts from 1 to 3 days.  A similar period of adaptation
to artificial gravity seems perfectly reasonable to me, especially for
exploration or early settlement habitats.  Studies show that most people
can adapt to 3 RPM within a day or two, and most published comfort
charts for AG put the upper limit at 4 or even 6 RPM.

Years ago, in a USENET discussion group, I encountered a person who
seemed very knowledgeable about many things -- especially physics -- who
wrote confidently that anything above 1 RPM would make people violently
ill.  The available published research absolutely refutes that, and I
called him on it, citing all of the published research to the contrary.
I think he might have been confusing 1 RPM with 1 radian/second, which
equates to about 10 RPM and is another matter entirely.

Thanks, Ted!

My own thoughts:

Of course tourism may be another matter, because tourists are there for only a relatively short time, and don't want to spend it feeling ill.

On the other hand, motion sickness is pretty common on cruise ships, but that hasn't hurt the cruise industry.  Also, many passengers avoid it by using drugs (Dramamine, Meclazine, etc.).  These drugs are also commonly used for passengers on the Zero-G flight to help avoid "space sickness" (motion sickness) there, too.  As far as I know, all the rotation tolerance studies were done in the absence of any motion-sickness drugs.  So it's quite possible that tourists would be just fine at 4-6 RPM as long as they slap on a patch before launch.