Kyoto University proposes a system to create artificial gravity on the Moon

With the Artemis program, which aims to put humans back on the Moon by 2025, and the development of the commercial aerospace industry, which already aspires to transport passengers to our satellite and to Mars, as is the case with Space X’s Starship programme, solving how a sustainable habitat can be maintained is critical to the future of space exploration.

For this reason, engineers and researchers from Kyoto University and the Kajima Corporation, one of the largest and oldest construction companies in Japan with almost two centuries of experience, have carried out a joint proposal to create a habitat for sustainable life on other planets such as the Moon and Marsaccording to Gizmodo.

In a published statement, the authors of the proposal consider the type of environment and facilities that are needed to live on another planet. While the concerns of the aerospace sector are to ensure the necessary resources to be able to breathe, feed and survive on the Moon or Mars, the proposal considers the importance of gravity in order to develop a life similar to the one on Earth.

The gravity on the Moon is 16.5% compared to that of our planet, and in the case of Mars 37.9%. They are well proven the effects on bone mass of staying in space, so the researchers argue that “without gravity, mammals may not be born successfully. Furthermore, even if it can be born, will not be able to expect normal growth in low gravity conditions”. Therefore, “we consider that the “living artificial gravity installation” that can generate a gravity equivalent to the global environment by using centrifugal force Due to the rotation in space, the lunar surface and the surface of Mars is the core technology for human beings to advance in space.”

The proposal of the University of Kyoto and Kajima Corporation contemplates three aspects. The Glass is the first and consists of a system to generate artificial gravity on another planet through centrifugal force. For this you need a structure one hundred meters wide and four hundred meters high in the shape of a cone. These cones complete a rotation every twenty seconds, a speed with which generate the equivalent of a gravity of 1g, similar to that of the Earth.

Inside this structure is where the human settlers would live, in a “central mini biome” inside the structure that would be the habitable part in Moon Glass y Mars Glass. Lastly, a transportation system between planets called Hexatrack, also with artificial gravity, it would allow movements between worlds connecting them through orbiting stations on Earth, Moon and Mars. The proposal expects Lunar Glass can be built in the second half of this century.