NASA Builds A New Twirl and Hurl

[Tuckerfan]

Houston, we have a puker.

NASA will use a new human centrifuge to explore artificial gravity as a way to counter the physiologic effects of extended weightlessness for future space exploration.

The new research will begin this summer at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston, overseen by NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston. A NASA-provided Short-Radius Centrifuge will attempt to protect normal human test subjects from deconditioning when confined to strict bed rest.

Bed rest can closely imitate some of the detrimental effects of weightlessness on the body. For the first time, researchers will systematically study how artificial gravity may serve as a countermeasure to prolonged simulated weightlessness.