Study of artificial gravity systems for long duration space missions

Abstract

We are living the dawn of a new era in space exploration. Space agencies and recently created private companies are retaking interest in sending humans to explore the outside of our home planet, beyond low earth orbit. NASA has plans for human exploration in The Moon and Mars, and many other entities are willing to collaborate in this missions. While private companies like SpaceX or Blue Origin are developing plans for Mars colonisation and space habitats for a large number of people. Taking the current situation into account and analysing the direction of the space industry, it is reasonable to predict that the number of people that will leave earth in the next years is going to increase. Humans have not evolved to endure the roughness of the space environment. One of the most challenging factors that astronauts have to overcome when adapting to space is weightlessness. If we want to live in space for long periods of time without severe medical intervention, some form of artificial gravity is going to be needed. This study has the aim of analysing the different designs that have been proposed to generate artificial gravity for long duration space missions, and adapt them to the current technologies and plans for the colonisation of space. A design of a structure to generate artificial gravity for SpaceX missions to Mars will be proposed and simulated.