Lopsided artificial gravity

I'm trying to come up with a the most economical design for artificial gravity. The simplest design for a space ship is to have a spinning ring structure around a central body. People living in the ring experience gravity, but the central body is still zero G.

But making a ring is expensive, the walls need to be thick for radiation shielding on long flights. What if I had two spheres connected to the central core by a shaft?

The full gravity module contains sleeping quarters and recreation, and the partial gravity module contains work areas. The crew would retire to the full gravity module when their shift is over, and get full gravity for a good part of their day. Meanwhile operations in the partial gravity module are easier than in zero-G, since you don't have to deal with floating messes. The partial gravity module is closer to the central core, but is also much heavier than the full gravity module.

Would this design work? Would it make the central core unstable or hard to maneuver? I know gyroscopes behave strangely, and I'm not sure what a lopsided design like this one would do to the ship. I image things would get weird when loading heavy cargo onto one of the modules?

posted almost 7 years ago

Ebonair‭

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