If fish tanks were installed in non-rotating parts of the space habitat they would not need excessive structural support. Fish that use gas bladders to rise and descend in the water might not adapt well. Some aquatic creatures may be better suited to weightlessness. Maybe squid?
The main reason for rotation is to prevent space sickness. T…
If fish tanks were installed in non-rotating parts of the space habitat they would not need excessive structural support. Fish that use gas bladders to rise and descend in the water might not adapt well. Some aquatic creatures may be better suited to weightlessness. Maybe squid?
The main reason for rotation is to prevent space sickness. There is a minimum required amount of time that people need to feel weight. If space sickness could be controlled without using rotating structures, space habitats would be much easier to build and maintain.
It doesn't seem likely, but if enough water could be acquired without having to raise it up from a deep gravity well like the earth's, the non-rotating tanks could even be used as a radiation shield.
Of course, zero G or very low G water tanks would be much easier to handle than 1G water. Has there been any research on the feasibility of this? On the ISS or somewhere similar? I imagine most aquatic creatures have some notion about up and down and might get very disoriented if up and down disappears.
Preventing space sickness is not the only reason to have gravity. While zero G has obvious advantages when handling heavy objects, in general the physical handling of small things is easier if there is some force pulling at them. Something to bring order in chaos, so to speak. For example, most forms of ore refining use the pull of gravity in some sense to achieve the separation of different fractions. The ability to achieve the same result in zero G will need some serious ingenuity.
If fish tanks were installed in non-rotating parts of the space habitat they would not need excessive structural support. Fish that use gas bladders to rise and descend in the water might not adapt well. Some aquatic creatures may be better suited to weightlessness. Maybe squid?
The main reason for rotation is to prevent space sickness. There is a minimum required amount of time that people need to feel weight. If space sickness could be controlled without using rotating structures, space habitats would be much easier to build and maintain.
It doesn't seem likely, but if enough water could be acquired without having to raise it up from a deep gravity well like the earth's, the non-rotating tanks could even be used as a radiation shield.
Of course, zero G or very low G water tanks would be much easier to handle than 1G water. Has there been any research on the feasibility of this? On the ISS or somewhere similar? I imagine most aquatic creatures have some notion about up and down and might get very disoriented if up and down disappears.
Preventing space sickness is not the only reason to have gravity. While zero G has obvious advantages when handling heavy objects, in general the physical handling of small things is easier if there is some force pulling at them. Something to bring order in chaos, so to speak. For example, most forms of ore refining use the pull of gravity in some sense to achieve the separation of different fractions. The ability to achieve the same result in zero G will need some serious ingenuity.