Pseudogravity Ballistic Trajectories

Abstract

Summary Because prolonged weightlessness has detrimental effects on human physiology, spaceflight experts envision artificial gravity, or pseudogravity, for long-duration space missions and artificial space habitats. This pseudogravity is generated by a constant rotation of the living space, typically a cylinder rotating about its axis. One aspect of this environment that could be disorienting or possibly even dangerous is the behavior of objects whose motion is initiated by being dropped, thrown, or struck, thereafter moving free of any external force (we ignore air resistance). We investigate the resulting pseudogravity ballistic trajectories in a frame of reference that rotates with the cylinder. The surprising and interesting results are greatly clarified by the use of parametric equations in both rectangular and polar coordinates, along with the usual formulations of velocity, acceleration, and curvature.