Spaceballs

Hmm, not good news.
Nobody saw that coming...

I find it hard to believe that a lack of gravity causes this, although the evidence seems to be clear.
Surely it just means that in future space craft will need to incorporate rotating sections to induce gravity?
 
Perhaps my extreme short-sightedness hasn't ended my astronautical ambitions after all then. :blink:

I suppose on reflection I'm surprised the human body can bear a zero gravity environment for even a short time, given that was never part of the 'design brief' as it were. Even if it incorporates a certain number of redundant and/or poorly designed parts, the human body is pretty resilient.
 
Surely it just means that in future space craft will need to incorporate rotating sections to induce gravity?

Or that human space travel should never involve Month long voyages. Warping from galaxy to galaxy is where it's at, using "Ludicrous Speed" of course. ;)
 
I'll bet you a pound to a penny that they come up with a pill to cure the symptom before they a) prove that space-induced intracranial hypertension is in fact accurate as reported, and b) work out the cause and cure that instead, or c) work out the cause and learn how to prevent it in the first place.

EDIT - there's also well-documented osteoporosis from long-term space missions.
Never mind risking being blown up at launch, it's pretty hairy in space even if you get there safely!
 
But gravity and artificial gravity are not the same thing. Gravity is a force which attracts something to the centre of it's mass. Well, it's a bit more complicated than that actually, especially if you are encapsulated by the object. In the scenario of a space-station the centrifugal force repels the object from it's fulcrum. The first sentence on that wikipedia page confirms my post absolutely.

[EDIT] I did say I was being pedantic. I just didn't want people to get confused as to what gravity is. I've made a little edit above just to make sure I don't mislead anyone, either.
 
They are different indeed ;) But we were talking about creating gravity in space; or am I just nitpicking now?
TOO MUCH SCIENCE, I have to learn too much. hehe
 
Sorry for running on with this one.

Gravity cannot be created, whether in space or in our atmosphere. It is a natural property of all things which have mass. The effects of gravity, however, can be simulated or replicated through other means.

To add, interestingly, gravity is one of the weakest physical forces known and documented by mankind.
 
Yes. It's strength is relative. As the galaxy is huge and contains a lot of objects of great mass it seems logical to assume that it is a force of great strength, but you would be somewhat misled.

Here's the first thing that popped up on Google which should explain things better than I will be able to:

http://library.thinkquest.org/27930/forces.htm

And here is great quote from that web page:

Thinkquest said:
Gravity, the weakest of the four forces, is about 10^-36 times the strength of the strong force. This weakness is easily demonstrable - on a dry day, rub a comb across your shirt to give it static electricity, then hold it over a piece of paper on a desk. If you were successful, the piece of paper lifts off the desk. It takes an entire planet to keep the paper on the desk, but this force is easily overcome with everyday materials employing the electromagnetic force.
 
Perhaps my extreme short-sightedness hasn't ended my astronautical ambitions after all then. :blink:
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Having read that article this particular issue was actually the one thing that stood out for me.
They are unclear as to what particular consequence of long-term space flight condition results in those deformations of the optic nerve/eyeball structures but if they managed to isolate and reproduce these conditions in an earth-like environment they could potentially come up with something that would in time make laser eye-surgery redundant.
In fact they're probably researching on that as we speak.
 
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