WEBVTT - From the Vault: Artificial Gravity 0:00:05.800 --> 0:00:08.039 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your mind. My name 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:11.000 is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday. 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:14.040 Time to venture into the Vault. This episode originally aired 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:19.280 on July and it is about artificial gravity. Yeah, this 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:21.560 is a really fun episode. Uh, and it's and I 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:24.120 think it's a great one to to re air here 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:28.080 as our last Vault episode of But it gets into 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:33.440 various models for how we could conceivably carry out artificial 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:36.919 gravity aboard us some sort of an artificial vessel. Now, 0:00:36.960 --> 0:00:39.440 why did you think this would be a great last 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:42.040 Vault episode of the year. Is that that you expect 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:46.280 to be floating around the end of December or what? Well, yeah, 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:49.120 I guess you know your New Year's Eve celebrations, everybody's 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:52.520 going to feel a little floaty, feel yourself or maybe 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:54.240 you're gonna feel more drawn to the year. I hope 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:57.360 everyone's gonna feel a little lighter. You need some centrifugal anchoring. 0:00:57.600 --> 0:00:59.800 That's the other thing. People are may very well feel 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:02.880 like they've been spun around in some sort of human 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:06.080 concoction and uh, and they're struggling to to keep their 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:08.680 feet underneath them. That's going to be the new trendy 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:12.920 hangover cure. Just get inside your high efficiency washing machine. Absolutely, 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:15.280 but yeah, this is a great episode. We get to 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:18.679 talk about a number of sci fi properties. We talk 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:21.080 a little bit about two thousand and one of Space Odyssey. 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:24.880 Uh so, hey, everyone, enjoy and we'll catch you on 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:31.240 the other side. Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:39.880 from how Stuff Works dot Com. Hey you, welcome to 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:41.920 Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:45.240 and I'm Joe McCormick. And Robert, I know that many 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:48.520 times you must have imagined what life is like in 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:51.440 a zero gravity environment, right, Oh yeah, I mean you 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:54.440 can't help you, You can't help thinking about it as 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:58.160 you read about space exploration and and engage with with 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:01.240 various science fiction scenarios. What would it be like to 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:04.880 to float free, uh, inside of a capsule? Yeah, and 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:08.960 people obviously imagine the very simple stuff, right, you know, 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:10.839 floating from one end of the room to the other, 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:13.600 not being able to walk normally, maybe fear that you 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:16.880 would experience some motion sickness. You know, many, many people 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:19.360 who go to space, I think at least half I 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:23.680 think is the number, experience some kind of space adaptation problem, 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:26.680 space sickness once they arrive that might go away after 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:30.760 some time, or you tend to focus on the amazing 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:34.040 and the horrible ideas, like you know, for instance, how 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:37.320 fun it would be to drink orange juice and space 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:40.519 by chasing the globs around the capsule, or the more 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:44.840 you know, they're definitely horrible or or almost horrible scenarios 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:48.320 such as, of course, uh, you know, the bone mass 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:52.160 density loss, as well as the problem of trying to 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:54.200 poop in a toilet. Right, I thought you were going 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:57.000 to immediately go to using the bathroom. I was immediately 0:02:57.000 --> 0:02:58.320 going to go to the bathroom, and then I thought 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:01.840 I should I should reference like the really pivotal problem 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:05.480 here as opposed to just the one that is difficult. No, 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:07.960 I mean, going to the bathroom isn't necessarily a big problem. 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:10.640 You know, you it might not sound all that appealing 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:14.079 to essentially poop into a vacuum cleaner, but our bag. 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:16.760 You know, a lot of people maybe that's something they've 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:20.480 always wanted to try out. It's not necessarily a horrible idea, 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:23.600 but it will definitely be horrible. I don't know if 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:26.239 you make a mistake in this process That's where the 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:29.600 horror stories kick in, is when the the the super 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:33.840 expensive space toilet malfunctions. The same thing, of course, is true, 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:36.400 well not exactly the same thing. A similar thing is 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:40.440 true of you mentioned chasing orange juice globules with your 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:44.520 mouth to hunt them down. But eating in space, I mean, 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:47.280 we depend on gravity so much for a lot of 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:51.280 our eating activity. Keeping food in a container, I mean, 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:55.160 you just can't compose dishes in space. You've gotta again 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:57.360 kind of like you poop into a bag. You've got 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:00.440 to eat out of a bag um, or have something 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:03.160 that's relatively solid and doesn't have crumbs that are going 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:05.200 to get everywhere. I mean, can you think about trying 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:08.280 to salt your food in space? You sort of need 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:10.640 to like salt into a bag and shake it up 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:12.760 or something. Yeah, or just have like a hot sauce 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:15.600 packet that you you add into your own mouth afterwards. 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:17.440 I feel like I could get buying a number of 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:20.760 like bagged curries and whatnot. Yeah. Now, of course, another 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:24.320 thing Astronaut's report about zero gravity environments is that your 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:27.599 sense of taste is all jammed up, Like you can't 0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:30.159 taste things the way you normally would and part of 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:32.800 this probably has to do with the fluid redistribution in 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:35.359 your body that leads your head and upper body to 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:38.920 swell because you don't have the normal gravity pulling all 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:41.080 the fluids in your body towards your feet, which your 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:46.200 body is naturally trying to overcompensate for. Another gravity tidbit 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:49.119 that that I always find fascinating is that I believe 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:51.279 Mary Roach pointed this out in their book A Packing 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:55.720 for Mars. If you're in a microgravity zero gravity environment, 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:59.680 your bladder doesn't fill up from the bottom up would 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:02.279 feel like in the center right, It fills like all 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:04.480 around towards the very center. So you don't realize that 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:08.760 you need a urinate, uh, typically until you're absolutely about 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:12.520 to burst, because because we have evolved to sense the 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:15.839 to detect that the need for our own urination on 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:18.479 a gravity invite, in a gravity environment, on a on 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:21.240 a world with gravity, we are creatures of gravity. It 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:24.200 reminds me of a piece of terminology I haven't really 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:27.240 thought of since elementary school. But back then, there would 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:29.920 be a thing that would be like a p quote emergency. 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:33.320 Remember the emergency? Oh yeah, well, I mean I guess 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:35.760 if you have kids there's such a thing as an emergency. Yeah. 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:38.880 I have a five year old son, and so he 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:42.360 has these where it's like suddenly it's super dire, like 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:45.240 you have. He has to run outside off the front 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:47.960 door is closer to him, uh, you know, grabbing himself 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:50.400 the whole time and going I gotta go pee and 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:53.120 then immediately paying Um. This is the kind of thing 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:58.279 adults tend not to experience, unless perhaps you go into space. Right, 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:02.400 So those are the the less dire things now you 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:06.040 already alluded to, of course, the deterioration of body tissues, 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:10.520 loss of bone density, loss of muscle mass, and and 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:13.800 and all the different negative consequences that happened to the 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:18.280 body under zero gravity or microgravity conditions. These things can 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:22.120 really stack up, and it's not a trivial effect. Astronauts 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:25.800 have to exercise constantly when they're in microgravity environments. They've 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:28.560 got to spend hours a day working out in these 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:31.800 weird machines just to try to offset some of the 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:34.479 damage that's being done to their bodies by the lack 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:38.640 of gravity in their environment. And it's still not enough. 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:41.240 I mean, they still come back to back to Earth 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:44.760 messed up, and they need time to re reacclimate. Hopefully 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:47.120 they will eventually come back to something like full health. 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:50.159 But but it's not good for you. Yeah. And and 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:53.240 of course one of the problems is that uh, astronauts 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:56.040 want to go back to space, so they're not necessarily 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:59.599 going to be as forthcoming about the about how they 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:01.840 drinks at the feeling. Yeah, I guess that is a 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:04.200 thing to worry about. You'd hope that they'd be accurately 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:07.520 reporting how bad it is, but maybe they just they 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:09.159 want to get back up there. Yeah, I mean that, 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:12.200 that's that's what what I've I've heard is that generally speaking, 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:14.720 and you don't go to space then and you're you're like, oh, 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:17.800 that's enough of that. I'm good. An astronaut a person 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:20.720 it's worth their whole life to do this for not 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:22.320 even just to do this, but for the chance of 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:24.080 doing this. Of course they're gonna want to go back. 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:27.480 So my question is, why don't the people who run 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:29.640 the I S S. I don't know whoever they are, NASA, 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:34.000 I guess maybe not NASA space agencies around the world. 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:37.440 Why don't the people who run our space stations just 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:40.600 take advantage of the Holtzman effect and put some gravity 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:42.840 plating in there so that you can walk around like 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:45.480 a normal Earth humans. A. Yeah, so yeah, you're so 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:49.240 you're drawing in both Star Trek and Done here, but 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:52.640 they're they're both prime examples because they're straight into the blender, 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:56.120 right because this is uh, this is one of the 0:07:56.840 --> 0:07:59.520 key aspects of our science fiction when it comes to 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:04.000 gravity or lack of gravity and space. They're basically three models. 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:06.880 Either you're gonna you're gonna try and go hard science 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:10.240 and have some sort of an artificial gravity scenario like 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:12.200 some of the realistic scenarios we're going to discuss in 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:16.160 this podcast. You're gonna just go you know, micro gravity 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:18.600 zero G and have people floating around, which of course 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:21.800 can be difficult from a special effects standpoint. Or you're 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:24.600 gonna go space wizards. Yeah, you're just gonna go magic 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:28.840 artificial gravity and just say hey we let's Star Trek. 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:33.360 We have gravity plates in the floor. Of course there's gravity. Uh, 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:36.199 it's the in in in in Dune. You have the 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:40.160 the Holtzman effect generated by the Holtzman field generator, and 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:43.520 Herbert never explain exactly what it was or how it worked, 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:46.400 but it allowed for the generation of anti gravity, faster 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:50.760 than light travel, personal shields, artificial gravity on ships, you know, 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:52.640 all the things you need to sort of go ahead 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:57.760 and establish your interstellar uh empire and then tell the 0:08:57.800 --> 0:08:59.560 stories you want to tell. You know, I'm okay with 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:03.000 that be because in lots of science fiction stories, essentially 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:05.640 they're trying to tell a character drama or it's a 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:09.400 fantasy story set in space. I don't need all science 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:12.200 fiction to be hard science fiction, but I really do 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:15.400 appreciate hard science fiction that tries to take the physics 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:18.920 that we know seriously. This does not, But that's okay, 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:20.640 you know, that's doing its own thing. Yeah. I mean, 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:23.040 Herbert had areas that he was definitely going to focus 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:28.679 in on, such as ecological issues, philosophical, religious, cultural issues, 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:32.280 and of course this the drama that is especially seen 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:35.280 in the first book. So I kind of slack. Yeah, 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:38.560 I'm fine with some magic anti gravity. Now, in terms 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:41.360 of sci fi properties that do take it really seriously. 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:43.360 What are what are a few films that come to mind? Well, 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:46.000 of course, you you immediately think of two thousand one 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:49.720 of Space Odyssey. Now that's got multiple spacecraft. There's a 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:52.880 space station and there's a spacecraft that both use something 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:56.160 we're going to talk about later in the episode, rotational 0:09:56.920 --> 0:10:01.800 UH structures for centripetal force driven or centrifical, centrifugal or 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:06.480 centripetal force driven artificial gravity scenarios. Also, there is a 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:10.760 good artificial gravity ship in the Martian UH, and I remember, 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:13.360 I think there's one in a space station, and Interstellar 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:17.520 isn't there? Yes, I do believe, I remember the spinning situation. 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:19.920 And I also want to point out James S. A. 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:23.920 Corey's Expanse series, both the books and the sci fi 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:27.360 TV show, which which does I think a really good 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:33.760 job of going after from near future interplanetary culture and technology. 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:37.880 And it's also the only sci fi property that I 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:41.560 can think of that that actually explores one of the 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:44.480 anti gravity schemes that're gonna we're gonna be discussing today. 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:48.600 Linear acceleration. Well, linear acceleration, I can see why that's 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:51.920 limited because it has sort of limited applicability if you're 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:54.720 going to try to be real about like it only 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:57.679 works in certain types of ships doing certain types of 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:00.760 things to a certain extent. We can we can chat 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:04.079 about this this this later. Okay, we'll correct me. Well, 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:05.960 I don't know, but it's not really correction. But I 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:09.520 think one of the problems is that linear acceleration model 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:15.600 calls for a spaceship that is not a seagoing vessel 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:20.160 transported into space, because, as I said before in the program, 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:21.800 I think a lot of our science fiction are sci 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:25.480 fi ships are essentially seagoing vessels and tales of seagoing 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:29.720 vessels and seagoing captains, uh, taken from Earth and transposed 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:32.319 into space. I mean that was basically Gene Roddenberry's a 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:35.880 whole deal with Star Trek that it was was the 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:37.880 Master and Commander books that he wasn't No, it was 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:42.280 a different one. Um. I can't remember the series offhand, 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:46.920 but anyway, he was inspired by by literary tales of 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:51.800 of of adventurous humans at sea. Uh no, well maybe 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:55.360 I don't know. Well I guess is yeah, from Hell's Hired. 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:58.199 I stabbed at the right. But it's it's more difficult 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:00.440 with linear acceleration because you have to have to take 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:02.840 that concept of an Earth vessel and you really have 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:05.760 to literally turn it on its side. You have to 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:07.960 think instead of a ship going from port to port 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:11.040 and stopping, you have to think about long continuous journeys. 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:14.280 But we'll get into all that in a bit. Okay, Well, 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:16.080 I guess we should first just take a real quick 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:20.080 look at what is the problem with artificial gravity, with 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:24.079 generating gravity and space. Why can't you just do it? Well, 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:26.720 I mean, so, gravity is something that is a field 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:30.120 generated by generally we think of it as mass. It's 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:33.160 generated by the stuff in the universe, energy and mass, 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:36.600 you know, much more by matter that has mass. So 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:39.040 we all know that objects that have mass have a 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:42.560 mutual attractive force. They tend to attract one another. And 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:44.560 you know, we've known this for a long time. It 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:47.880 was the laws of gravitation were to a certain extent 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:51.040 well explained by Newton in the seventeenth century, and he 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:54.040 basically described the laws of gravitation in a way that 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:56.000 that makes sense for most of the stuff we're going 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:58.760 to be looking at, for planets, for space ships, for 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:03.280 things like that. Now. Off later, Albert Einstein revolutionized our 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:06.200 understanding of what gravity is by telling us that gravity 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:09.240 is the curvature of space time, and that sort of 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:12.600 matter tells space time how to curve, and that the 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:15.840 curvature of space time tells matter how to move right 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:18.920 So let's start with mask because I think that's the 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:22.040 that's that's the essential part. That's that's a pretty easy 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:25.880 to understand here. So everything with mass, from a dust 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:29.080 moat to a star, exerts a gravitational pull. The strength 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:32.040 of the poll, however, increases with mass and proximity to 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:35.440 the object. So a smaller object can only attract another 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:38.120 small object of it's nearby, but a large opect can 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:40.960 pull in objects from across the vast distance. Right, And 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:43.720 this is kind of this is key to the structure 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:46.360 much of the structure of our of our universe. I mean, 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:50.040 this is how accretion occurs with little specks of space 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:55.760 dust and gas forming together and snowballing into larger cosmic bodies. Yeah, 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:58.200 I mean, this is how our solar system was created. 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:01.800 Was the coalescing of objects by the force of gravity. 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:05.880 Things are attracted to each other, eventually becoming stars, planets 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:09.760 all that. Yeah, And then alert Einstein's general theory of 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:12.200 relativity comes along and propose that the gravity is a 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:15.160 curve in the fourth dimension of space time. And there's 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:17.960 proof to back him up. Given sufficient mass, an object 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:20.760 can cause an otherwise straight beam of light to curve 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:25.640 astronomers called this effect gravitational lensing. Yeah, this was shown experimentally. 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:28.560 It was one of the first big experimental proofs of 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:32.320 Einstein's theory of relativity. Is that you could see light 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:36.360 from stars passing behind the Sun bending as it came 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:39.160 right around the Sun. So you know, if you could 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:41.960 have a solar eclipse and shield out the light from 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:44.440 the Sun, you could see stars in the background being 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:46.960 warped by the Sun's gravity as the beams of light 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:50.560 passed close to our Sun. Yeah. And similarly, the less 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:53.160 gravity there is, the slower time passes. And this is 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:57.400 a phenomenonme is gravitational time dilation. This is this is 0:14:57.440 --> 0:14:59.040 the less key to what we're talking about. But it 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:02.200 just drives home like the place of gravity, uh in 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:04.960 our universe. Yeah, it sounds this is one of those 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:07.480 things that sounds like fantasy, but it's absolutely true. And 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:10.000 you saw that. We mentioned the movie Interstellar earlier. There's 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:12.600 actually there are a couple of great scenes and the 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:15.080 demonstrate this where they go down to a planet with 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:19.600 an incredibly high gravitational pull and uh, while they're down 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:22.120 there on the planet, much less time passes for the 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:24.720 people on the planet than passes for people in orbit 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:28.920 farther away. Yeah, As a physicist Paul Davies points out, 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:31.360 time runs a little bit faster in space than it 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:33.400 does down on Earth. It runs a little faster on 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:35.720 the roof than it does in the basement, and that's 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:39.920 a measurable effect. Then's the basics on gravity. But then 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:44.440 there's also this additional area of quantum gravitation and the 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:48.160 idea that that there is a there's a hypothetical particle, 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:51.600 the graviton, which in theory could cause optics to be 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:54.000 attracted to one another. Yeah, and this would be the 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:57.240 mediating particle of the force of gravity, in the same 0:15:57.240 --> 0:16:00.880 way you've got like the electromagnetic force, the mediating particle 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:05.200 there is the photon. Hypothetically you'd have some mediating particle 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:09.000 delivering the force of gravity. But we've never seen gravitons 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:12.440 in the universe. Right. This is this whole hypothesis comes 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:15.680 together because quantum theory, to refresh, addresses how the universe 0:16:15.720 --> 0:16:19.880 works at the smallest subotanic levels, and the resulting model 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:25.000 here does not explain gravity. So gravitons and the theory 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:28.680 of quantum gravity is an attempt to reconcile general relativity 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:32.880 with quantum theory. It's a basically an attempt to patch 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:35.360 up a hole in the standard model of particle physics, 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:38.840 which cannot explain gravity. Now, the last time I read 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:41.520 seriously about gravitons was a few years ago. I wonder 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:45.640 if any recent experiments in our particle colliders have have 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:48.720 shed any light on that. I mean, our physicists now 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:52.960 thinking gravitons are more likely or less likely. So well, 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:55.400 we certainly don't have any definitive proof on the matter yet. 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:57.680 But I guess for the purposes of our discussion here, 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:01.840 since we don't have proof of gravitons, we can't really 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:04.960 come up with a scheme to employ them or manipulate 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:08.159 them in some way that would give us artificial gravity. Yeah, so, 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:10.520 I guess are the point of our bringing up gravitons 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:12.680 is that you can't just wave a magic wand and say, 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:15.840 ah ha, gravitons will be the thing we use to 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:19.119 create artificial gravity in space. I mean, we don't know 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:21.400 if they exist. If they do exist, I'm not sure 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:23.800 anybody has a coherent idea of how they could be 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:28.560 harnessed to provide artificial gravity in space. It just seems 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:31.480 like I don't know what is So if they're generated 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:34.360 by mass, would you not need mass to generate them? Yeah, 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:36.080 I could. I looked around in my research and I 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:40.920 couldn't find any, like, any real theories about how gravitons, 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:43.520 if they exists, might be utilized in this fashion. And 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:46.280 I'm not I'm not aware of any science fiction that 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:48.679 explores the possibility, but I would love to know about it. 0:17:48.760 --> 0:17:51.520 I think when it does, it's more just the kind 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:55.080 of it's the handwaving magic. Right. So we come back 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:58.040 to mass, then yeah, you could, I guess, have a 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:00.760 spaceship that's as massive as the Earth, and then that 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:04.479 would have that would give you the gravitational pool you need. 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:08.000 That's not exactly a terrible idea, and it's not unexplored. 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:10.359 I mean there have been these ideas, for example, in 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:14.000 you know, stellar engineering projects that say, hey, so let's 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:17.040 say we want to travel to another solar system, wouldn't 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:19.560 it be easier instead of trying to build an arc 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:22.120 ship to take us there, to see if we can 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:25.159 build a structure around the Sun that will reflect some 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:28.160 of its radiation and allow us to steer the movement 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:30.679 of the entire solar system. Oh yeah, yeah, I just 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:34.159 move the solar system. Yeah, so like the solar system 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:36.879 becomes our spaceship. You can build these things called a 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:41.240 hypothetical structure called a Scatow thruster. Essentially, it would just 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:45.320 drive the sun. Yeah. That actually features into No Surprise 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:47.560 and Ena in Banks book, but I'm not going to 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:50.199 say which one because it's kind of it's kind of 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:52.879 a spoiler. Okay, but it's one of them. Leave it, 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:55.880 leave it there. Yeah, So that is one idea though. 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:58.520 If you wanted to travel through space on an object 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:01.000 that has Earth gravity, you could just take Earth with you. 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:03.720 Of course, it wouldn't really make sense to say, well, 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:06.720 I want to build a spaceship that generates Earth gravity 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:11.399 through natural mass generating effects, because then you would just 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:14.000 be building a spaceship the mass of Earth. Right, And 0:19:14.040 --> 0:19:17.520 if you can do that, then, uh, I mean you're 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:21.199 already you're already a pretty powerful civilization. I'm not sure 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:23.280 where you would rank on the Cardassi of scale, but 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:27.320 you'd be you'd be potent. That'd be definitely a Cardassi 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:29.920 of one, maybe a Cardassi of two. All Right, so 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:34.879 we've talked about these scenarios involving natural gravity and and 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:39.520 the idea of manipulating natural gravitational forces. Luckily we're not 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:42.280 We're not forced to contend only with those. We can 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:45.879 also deal with artificial gravity, not in a magic sense, 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:49.399 but in a but in a real sense. Yeah, and 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:53.200 and this way, there are ways to generate artificial gravity 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:56.680 that are not hypothetical or speculative at all. I mean, 0:19:56.880 --> 0:20:01.159 this is totally easy, standard settled physics, because one of 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:04.119 the insights of modern physics is that gravity is in 0:20:04.200 --> 0:20:09.119 fact indistinguishable from acceleration. When you're being pulled toward a 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:12.520 planet's center and the planet has a mass such that 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:15.680 it generates a surface gravity of nine point eight meters 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:20.720 per second per second, which is what Earth's surface gravity is, right, 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:24.960 or whether you're accelerating through space at an acceleration rate 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:27.679 of nine point eight meters per second per second, the 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:31.120 effect you experience is exactly the same. You can't tell 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:35.360 the difference between these two situations. And so knowing this, 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:39.280 we could turn the idea of acceleration to our advantage. 0:20:39.720 --> 0:20:41.440 And that's where our first model comes into play. But 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:48.720 first we're gonna take a quick break than alright, we're back. 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:51.720 So The first model of artificial gravity we're going to 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:54.200 discuss here is the one that I alluded to earlier 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:57.520 and discussing the expanse, and one that I think by 0:20:57.560 --> 0:21:01.400 and large, bab, I cannot think of another single science 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:05.199 fiction property that employs this as their artificial gravity on 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:09.880 a spaceship. But yeah, linear acceleration, I can't really think 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:13.600 of many that do. But so, what's the basic idea here, Robert? 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:16.440 All Right, So, if you've ever written on a roller 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:19.040 coaster and felt yourself plastered to the back of the seat, 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:21.560 then you've experienced some of the power here. If you 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:23.760 were in a fighter jet and you were, you know, 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:27.680 traveling at a sufficient speed to pull you multiple g s, 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:30.720 you're you're also experiencing this as you're pushed back into 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:33.679 the chair. Right, So, if you can imagine being in 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:37.040 that fighter jet and you're being pulled back into your chair, 0:21:37.440 --> 0:21:41.480 except instead of going back into your chair, you put 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:44.199 your feet on the chair, put your head in the 0:21:44.200 --> 0:21:47.960 direction that the fighter jet is going, and the acceleration 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:50.320