Is an artificial gravity room on a modern spacecraft or space station feasible?

I'd like a gravity room on my space vessel for long space stays to avoid osteoporosis. They would spend a few hours each day in this room, reading or doing paper work, to maintain bone-mass.

I'm imagining a chamber (it doesn't need to be large) where the astronauts stand against a wall as the room rotates, like the classic carnival ride.

Image By Lzcracker - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4531120

I imagine that I would need some kind of counter-weight (spinning in the opposite direction) to maintain net-zero rotational momentum.

My question is whether a room like this is feasible on a spacecraft that would be built today. Or whether I'm overlooking some other factors that would make this undesirable.

Edit: I am imagining a very small centrifuge. Not large enough to run around in (as in 2001 or the Martian).

posted about 8 years ago

Cecilia‭

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