Mission: Space Centrifuge balance?

[DMC-12]

Hi Gang!

I was thinking about this last night when I could not fall asleep…lol (sorry if this is a stupid question)

Anyway… I was wondering about the balance of weight and the pods on the centrifuges.

I was thinking… What if there was, say, a rather husky group of people loaded into a couple/few of the pods on one side of the centrifuge, and on the other side ( 180 degrees on the other side of the centrifuge) there was a group of petite cheerleaders in a couple/few of the pods.

Now my question is… wouldn’t the centrifuge be unbalanced now, especially now traveling at a rather high RPM?

An example would be… your washing machine. If you do not load your washing machine correct, and you toss some heavier clothes all to one side of the tub, your washing machine is unbalanced… and starts to shake violently when the thing goes into rinse cycle.

Now, I don’t know if M: S has some kind of auto correct counter balance that would correct something like this. That is why I am asking / posing this scenario. Or will the load CM’s kinda look at the people while loading, and do there best guesstimating to make the centrifuge as balanced as possible?

I just thought I would post this… see what everyone else thinks or may know.

(no offence to husky people BTW, I am big boned myself) :wave:

 

[WDWFREAK53]

Good question...

because 4 people weighing 300+lbs on one side and 4 smaller children on the other side would be a difference that they'd need to factor in.

1200lbs compared to say 320lbs (4 kids weighing 80lbs each)

(Dueling Dragons at IoA had to figure this in...each train is "weighed" and to get the "near misses" perfectly, the trains may have to compensate one way or the other)

 

[DMC-12]

Anybody.... Anyone....

*Coughs... then cough echoes throughout the forum*

*Stares into crowd like a stand-up comedian who just bombed on stage, staring at the blank stares on the audiences face*

*Starts to sweat..... Then ponders*

What’s the Deal with airplane peanuts? I mean... are these supposed to fill you up? And do the people in First Class get a better, higher quality peanut?

Anyone.... Anyone.... any info at all on the centrifuge balance?