Artificial Gravity Research @ MVL

Exercise During Short-Radius Centrifugation

Laurence R. Young, Ana Diaz, Chris Trigg

Traditional countermeasures against the adverse effects of prolonged

weightlessness, such as exercise, resistive garments and lower-body negative
pressure, appear to be insufficient in practice and are often too inconvenient for
astronauts. AG represents a potential countermeasure that is unique. It promises
salutary effects on bone, muscle, cardiovascular and vestibular function. Rather
than alleviating the symptoms, it attempts to remove their cause. Although long a
favorite topic of scientists and science fiction authors, it is only now receiving
serious attention for space flight experiments and validation (Young, 1999). Several
recent task groups and countermeasure workshops conducted by NASA have
refocused attention on AG for extended missions. Spacecraft size dictates that any
AG centrifuge tested in the foreseeable future be of limited radius (on the order of
1-3 m). The largest diameter human centrifuge being considered for installation on
Spacehab, is under 2.5m in diameter, thus permitting a short astronaut only to sit or
bicycle, but not to stand up. Centripetal accelerations on the order of 1 g (9.8
m/sec2) at the rim will therefore require relatively high angular velocities (on the
order of 30 rpm). At these speeds, AG will create disruptive sensory effects as soon
as the astronaut starts to move. Limb movements are deflected and, more
importantly, head movements cause unexpected semicircular canal inputs as the
result of Coriolis cross-coupling between certain head movements and centrifuge
rotation. One might argue that during brief centrifugation on a short-radius
centrifuge (SRC) the head is best restrained to eliminate disturbances. Indeed, this
is the approach taken by the Nihon University group. However, restraining the head
seriously limits exercise, recreation, and comfort in the device. Movement is
mandatory during long-term centrifugation (e. g. in a rotating spacecraft) and it is
desirable during intermittent centrifugation (e. g. when combined with exercise).
Thus, AG for in-flight gravity replacement therapy requires that crewmembers be
capable of rapidly adapting to the unexpected canal inputs with minimal side- or
after-effects. Furthermore, it will be essential for astronauts to retain the adaptation
to the 0-g state in order to avoid "Space Adaptation Syndrome" each time they
transition from the centrifuge to weightlessness. From 1999-2007, we had an
extensive reserarch program on the problem of Adaptation to Artificial Gravity.

In our ongoing experimental efforts we address some of the most important

research questions regarding exercise during short-radius centrifugation. We are
developing a prototype exercise system which is mounted onto our MVL centrifuge
and have performed some preliminary tests on the hardware.