Artificial gravity as a countermeasure of physiological deconditioning in space

The displacement of humans from our planet to space and back to our planet or to another planet necessarily causes the exposure to transitional gravitational forces which create a need for countermeasures of physiological deconditioning. One of the alternative approaches to counteracting physiological deconditioning is the simulation of a gravitational field. An apparatus named the artificial gravity simulator (AGS) has been designed and constructed. The AGS is a short radius rotating platform capable of producing a +Gz 100% gradient of a variable magnitude up to 3-g. It supports four beds for testing four subjects at a time. The AGS is suitable for short and long duration experiments on various physiological systems. At present it is being used to study the cardiovascular response to various g-levels and exposure times.