Centrifugal force to create artificial gravity has been the obvious solution for years and years.
Why do we not plan future builds with this in mind?
Lawrence D. Roberts, Space law & policy academic
Answered May 28, 2012 · Author has 154 answers and 256.2k answer views
A space station designed as a rotating torus offers two important benefits for astronauts. By generating a centripetal force equivalent to gravity, the human body is spared the significant degradation of bone and muscle tissue that occurs when exposed to microgravity. In addition, the simulated effect of gravity eliminates the Space Adaptation Syndrome (NASA speak for “space sickness”) experienced by up to 90% of astronauts.
Unfortunately, these benefits are outweighed by the need to produce a safe and reliable station configuration that is both cost effective and tailored for the primary scientific goals of the project.
The International Space Station (the “ISS”) was designed as a laboratory for examining the space environment and the effects of micro-gravity in particular. These objectives would be defeated or seriously undermined with a design that rotated. Any observational instruments or experiments would have to be motion-isolated from the habitation structure (a proposition that would likely never provide as ideal an experimental environment as a zero gravity facility) or placed in a completely separate, free flying, configuration. Either way, this would require costly, additional construction. Moreover, the stresses posed by the rotation would mandate further design consideration (and possibly experimentation) and mass to compensate for the increased stresses on the structure (all of the above leading to dramatic increases in cost). Also, there are reliability issues with any stability mechanism.
The early ISS iterations did include a human rated centrifuge with a variable rate rotation capability. The intent was to conduct experiments on the space station crew to determine the ideal level of simulated gravitational exposure to defeat micro-gravity related atrophy. Unfortunately, the centrifuge was diminished and ultimately eliminated from the US station budget during the various redesigns in the 1990s. As an alternative, however, an effort was made to include the more limited, Japanese Centrifuge Accommodations Module (the “CAM”) on the ISS (the cost was borne by the Japanese government in exchange for launching the Kibo science module to the ISS via the space shuttle). Unfortunately, the CAM was canceled in 2005.
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