Centrifuges: their development and use in gravitational biology

The nature of centrifuges and their use in biological research are reviewed historically. Centrifuges are particularly important to research in gravitational biology because the inertial (centrifugal) forces developed by motion can be combined with gravitation to produce gravitational fields other than Earth gravity. In orbiting satellites centrifuges can provide an on-board 1 g environment. A similarity of results from the orbiting and ground-based 1 g controls will provide an essential assurance that the biological responses to the spacecraft environment are the result of changes in the gravitational field. The relationship of biological responses to gravitational fields greater or less than Earth gravity is considered. However, at present there is insufficient equivalent information to decide whether there is or is not a proportionality of response to fields stronger or weaker than Earth gravity.