SpaceX is getting ready for its third try to launch its huge Starship spacecraft into orbit. In a recent update, the company hinted that the launch might happen on March 14, but it's still waiting for regulatory approval.
"Starship will spin a little on the way to Mars," Musk said in response to a suggestion from Id Software founder John Carmack that SpaceX should test spin gravity on its Dragon astronaut shuttle.
The idea of artificial gravity using the spinning motion of a spacecraft has been around for a long time and has been a popular concept in science fiction for decades.
One of the most famous examples is the Discovery One spacecraft in the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey," where astronauts could jog around a rotating centrifuge.
There's a good reason for wanting to spin a spacecraft in space. Scientists have found that spending a long time in microgravity can harm human health, causing issues like loss of bone density and changes in the shape of the eye that can affect vision.
But there are some challenges in making this idea work. For one, a spacecraft would need to be quite large to spin fast enough to create enough centrifugal force. Generally, the smaller the radius of its spin, the faster it would have to rotate to mimic Earth's gravity, or 1g.
There's also the risk of astronauts feeling sick from all the spinning, as Wired has pointed out.
Astrophysicist Peter Hague suggested an alternative to having a single Starship spin on its own axis.
"Why not send them in pairs and tether them together?" he wrote. "You could get a longer radius and easily simulate Mars gravity that way."
While Musk didn't respond directly to Hague, he mentioned in 2021 that SpaceX was already considering this option.
Another challenge is figuring out how to reliably collect energy from the Sun. Space YouTuber Marcus House noted that keeping the spacecraft's temperature low and ensuring the solar panels point in the right direction would be a big challenge.
Despite these design issues, SpaceX isn't the only company interested in turning this science fiction idea into reality.
Other companies like Airbus are also looking into spinning space stations in Earth's orbit to provide artificial gravity for astronauts.
space stations in Earth's orbit