gravityLab

gravityLab is a space company in Seattle, Washington. It plans to provide programmable gravity for research and manufacturing in orbit. It will use small satellites in Earth orbit to create long-duration research environments that run remotely.

The company points to a gap in space science. Space agencies and companies plan to live and work on the Moon and Mars. Yet there is still no meaningful way to learn whether life needs a gravity level between zero gravity and Earth gravity. Questions remain in the physical sciences, in simple microorganisms and plants, and in multi-generation model animals such as laboratory mice.

gravityLab is building well-instrumented and controllable experiment volumes. It works with a spacecraft bus subcontractor to build small spacecraft of about 200 kilograms. These will launch as commercial rideshare payloads, which the company calls the lowest-cost way to reach Earth orbit. In space, each spacecraft will use a deployable boom about 20 meters long. The craft will spin end over end to make adjustable artificial gravity for long experiments.

A Payload Users Guide explains how researchers can fit partial gravity experiments on the spacecraft.

The company lists three areas where partial gravity research could help. In plant and crop science, researchers can ask whether high-yield crops can grow in Lunar or Martian gravity and what minimum gravity crops need. In physical sciences, they can study fire safety on the Moon, fluid flow, settling sediments and other industrial processes in altered gravity. In biology and life sciences, they can study how Lunar or Martian gravity affects basic biological processes across generations of life.

The company says decades of work on capsules, shuttles and space stations show that long-term zero gravity is bad for people. Earth gravity is good for them. The shape of the curve between the two is unknown, and the Moon and Mars both sit on it. The company believes the economic future of humankind is in space. It shares a vision of millions of people living, working and playing there.

Services

• Partial gravity research platform
• Programmable artificial gravity
• Payload accommodation
• Experiment volumes for orbit