Creating artificial gravity in a spaceship by constant acceleration

Question

If you are in a space ship that is accelerating at one G, would this create a one G environment for the occupants of the ship? This concept in respect to maintaining a habitable living space for long term for humans.

If the acceleration rate could be maintained, how soon would you be going too fast to maintain that speed? Assuming you're in earth orbit, about when would you reach some really high speeds if you were to continue this acceleration rate, as in speeds considered improbable under Einstein's rules?

Also, if you were to turn the ship arround and deaccelerate, would you also be creating a one G environment?

I'm working under the assumption that there is an endless supply of energy to create this acceleration.

Jim the Yooper Novelist

Answer 1

Your theory seems correct, But, I think that an easyer way to create artificial gravity is to spin the space ship (or part of the ship) in a circle.

Answer 2

A good question.  Yes, With a powerful enough engine and enough fuel, you could maintain a 1 g acceleration indefinitely.  You'd need a nuclear fusion engine or better; you'd soon run out of fuel with a chemical engine.  After about a year you'd be moving at close to the speed of light.  As far as we know, you can't exceed this speed, but you could still maintain a 1 g acceleration indefinitely as perceived by you and your instruments.  To an earthbound observer your spacecraft's speed would appear to be levelling off as it approached the speed of light, but because of time dilation you'd still feel 1 g and time would slow down for you.  Very likely, when we've got fusion motors and use them to travel to the stars, we'll accelerate at 1 g for the first half of the journey then turn the craft around and slow down at 1 g for the second half.  In the 1950s, Dr. Eugene Sanger calculated that you could travel unlimited distances in a human lifetime this way.  For instance you could circumnavigate the visible universe in about 41 years as measured by you.  But when you got back, you'd find that tens of billions of years had passed on Earth, and all your friends would be dead.  Closer to the present, the only way we'll be able to make manned trips to the outer planets in a reasonable time will be to use continuous acceleration as you suggest.  This way, a trip to Pluto would take a few weeks.  With todays spacecraft it would take decades.  Arthur C. Clarke wrote a story along these lines about a trip to an asteroid.  Inside the solar system, your maximum velocity would reach a couple of thousand km/sec before you started to decelerate.

Answer 3

Yes, the interior of a ship accelerating (or decelerating, or whatever) at 1 g is indistinguishable from standing on Earth.

As far as Relativity is concerned, you can accelerate at 1 g for however long you care to, and you still will never reach the speed of light.