Testing zero-gee on Earth???

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/050518_tech_wednesday.html

Well, it's good to finally see some efforts directed at the problem. We
have spent almost 40 years documenting the deconditioning aspects of
zero-gee exposure, and zero years doing something about it. Anyone who
has taken a Physics class knows how simple it is (in theory) to
generate artificial gravity from circular motion - early space station
designs have had large rotating pieces for exactly this reason. But
this study will be done in a minimally-useful way:

* The subjects won't be exposed to zero-gee, instead, they'll be
exposed to bed rest here on Earth. It's almost exactly the same, only
completely different.

* Half of the test subjects will be exposed to 2.5g for an hour a day,
then resume their bed rest. The other half will just do bed rest.

* The centrifuge is very short-radius, which will provide differing
g-levels all down the body.

In short, we want to find the effects of sustained Martian g (a little
over 1/3 Earth-g) on the human body. NASA is testing the effects of
short-duration short-radius 2.5g on bed-resters under Earth-g. I guess
it is possible we might accidentally learn something useful from this,
but I have my doubts.

-Dave Boll
http://www.daveboll.com/

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