I've recently been contemplating things like artificial gravity in a rotating space ship (for example, the O'Neill Cylinder) and learning about the Coralis effect and other interesting fictitious forces that appear in rotating reference frames.
It occurred to me that, if you were living on a space station spun for artificial gravity, it might be possible to become weightless in such an environment by travelling fast enough against the spin of the ship. My friend, who I was discussing this with, thinks otherwise, that you would actually be under more g's as you tried to gain the speed to lift off from the inner edge of the ship.
In terms of concrete numbers, say the ship is 4 kilometers in radius (as an O'Neill Cylinder would). At this size, the rate of rotation to generate 1g in centrifugal force (the artificial gravity) is under 0.5 rpm. If a vehicle travels on the inside of the cylinder against the spin fast enough, eventually the vehicle would cease moving when looked at from a static reference frame. I would think at this point, the vehicle could simply push off from the edge of the cylinder and float towards the center of the station. Is this correct?
Furthermore, would this method of "getting into air", as it were, be easier than it would be to counteract real gravity on Earth (with things like planes that generate lift with their wings)?
Best Answer
Assume the vehicle is already there before the space station is built. So it is floating. If it is floating slightly above space station ground, this does not change if the station starts to spin (neglecting its acceleration due to air friction). In the reference frame of the station it will move with the velocity of the outer cylinder. If you get in the same position later be counter-accelerating the spin, the result is the same (does not depend on history).