Is Gravity Really Not a Problem?
Musk has suggested that Starship could deal with the effects of weightlessness by spinning slightly to create artificial gravity. But the human body suffers in low gravity. Astronauts experience bone loss, weakened muscles, fluid imbalances, and even vision problems after only months in space.
To properly simulate gravity using spin, a spacecraft would need to be more than one hundred meters wide, twelve times larger than Starship’s current design. Another idea is to connect two ships with a long cable and spin them around each other. But this method has never been tested.
Even after arriving on Mars, people would still face trouble. Gravity on the red planet is about one third that of Earth. No one knows how the body will respond to that over years or decades. Long term health risks remain unknown, and no solution has been developed yet.
