宇宙航空環境医学 Vol. 53, No. 4, 82, 2016

合同ワークショップ 2

「Post-ISS, Moon Base or Martian Expedition」

5. Human artificial gravity on the International Space Station-feasibility of HTV-X option

Kazuhito Shimada

Tsukuba Space Center, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

The history of artificial gravity (AG) in orbit is old and new. When we talk about ‘any pre-planned artificial acceleration to a crew,’ 1966 Gemini-11 and Agena casing tether at 0.0005 G for 4 hours can be cited (Clément). In an experimental setting, 1985 Spacelab-1 linear sled and 1998 Neurolab off-axis rotator (up to 1 G) are noted.
 An international proposal ‘Artificial Gravity with Ergometric Exercise’ with Principal Investigator Iwase was rejected in 2013 due to International Space Station vibration issues. However, medical operations community as well as gravitational biology scientists are still interested in AG on the International Space Station (ISS), as it may simplify physiological countermeasures against microgravity effects.
 This paper discusses the feasibility of human artificial gravity with a proposed design of HTV-X cargo vehicle to the ISS. The new vehicle design should achieve a longer-than-3 months in-orbit stay of HTV, which would allow enough period to assess short-arm centrifuge AG countermeasure abilities.
 On the ground, we cannot precisely predict countermeasure thresholds of in-orbit AG in terms of load G, period, or repetition schedule;we need to first start trying.