Why does the ISS not have a stanford tourus-like module, where they would be able to have (partial) gravity? Were there ever any plans to add such a module in the past?
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1 – zero g is kinda the point, otherwise just do the experiments on Earth.
2 – you need a fairly large radius to make the constant 9.81m/s acceleration comfortable. Smaller modules would have to rotate very quickly and have notably higher effective force at the feet than at the head.
3 – you’ll need to constantly expend fuel to not counter-rotate the rest of the ISS.
because it is not strong enough. if you spun the space station, pieces would start flying off. strong things tend to be heavy and/or expensive and only one of those is workable for a space program, but there are limits and a gravity space station pushes way past what anyone can afford right now.
The short answer is money and back when they were planning the ISS the thought was they could do microgravity experiments where you of course do not want gravity.
Building a rotating space station is expensive. It needs to be really big so that you aren’t spinning very quickly out at the rim. And more importantly you want your feet to be spinning at the same speed as your head. There’s a strange effect in small diameter spinning objects where the amount of “gravity” at the outside is much larger than the inside. Imagine if you were lying down flat on a spinning wheel that was about twice your height, so that your head was right in the middle. As the wheel begins spinning, your feet would feel the “gravity” but your head would feel nothing because it’s in the middle just rotating around a point. This has been tested on humans and it’s very uncomfortable and disorienting. It makes people dizzy and nauseated.
A bunch of reasons.
First, you need the module to spin in a large enough radius for the body to not feel like it’s spinning. the large ring means expensive transportation.
Second, Spinning an object in space is a GREAT WAY to produce angular momentum. so unless you make counter spin it, its going to effect all future maneuvers.
You also want minimum moving part on a spacecraft, at least on the outside of it. Because unlike in Sci-fi shows, someone has to go outside to the spinning part, and make repairs.
And not to mention is a massive liability, space debris is a thing, the ISS had 16 occasions where it burned to get from away from debris. and if you add a massive ring, the risk skyrockets.
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