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Rotating wheel space station. Wernher von Braun 1952 concept. A rotating wheel space station, also known as a von Braun wheel, is a concept for a hypothetical wheel-shaped space station. Originally proposed by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1903, [1] the idea was expanded by Herman Potočnik in 1929, [2] and popularized by Wernher von Braun in 1952. [3]
In the context of a rotating space station, it is the radial force provided by the spacecraft's hull that acts as centripetal force. Thus, the "gravity" force felt by an object is the centrifugal force perceived in the rotating frame of reference as pointing "downwards" towards the hull.
Centrifugal force is a fictitious force in Newtonian mechanics (also called an "inertial" or "pseudo" force) ... as in proposed designs for rotating space stations.
One is the effects of centrifugal force upon the shape of the surface of water rotating in a bucket, equivalent to the phenomenon of rotational gravity used in proposals for human spaceflight. The second is the effect of centrifugal force upon the tension in a string joining two spheres rotating about their center of mass.
A space vehicle's flight is determined by application of Newton's second law of motion: =, where F is the vector sum of all forces exerted on the vehicle, m is its current mass, and a is the acceleration vector, the instantaneous rate of change of velocity (v), which in turn is the instantaneous rate of change of displacement.
At the Lagrange points, the gravitational forces of the two large bodies and the centrifugal force balance each other. [2] This can make Lagrange points an excellent location for satellites, as orbit corrections , and hence fuel requirements, needed to maintain the desired orbit are kept at a minimum.
When the velocity of the string exceeds 10 km/sec, centrifugal forces detach the string from Earth's surface and lift the ring into space. Andrew Meulenberg and his students, from 2008 to 2011, presented and published a number of papers based on types and applications of low-Earth-orbital rings as humanity's "stepping-stones-to-space".
In classical mechanics, centrifugal force is an outward force associated with rotation.Centrifugal force is one of several so-called pseudo-forces (also known as inertial forces), so named because, unlike real forces, they do not originate in interactions with other bodies situated in the environment of the particle upon which they act.