Sarah Knapton Science Editor

Space stations with artificial gravity that will allow humans to travel deep into the Solar System are on the horizon.

US company Vast is developing a large-scale orbital habitat designed to generate simulated gravity through centripetal force.

It will allow humans to live in space long term without the severe deleterious effects of zero gravity, opening up lengthy missions to Mars and beyond.

Tom Shelley, vice-president of private crew recruitment at Vast, said: “Artificial gravity space stations allow us to explore further and deeper into space.

“One of the problems with the humans in space is they suffer bone loss and muscle loss because of the side effects of living in microgravity, but if you can create an artificial gravity space station, you’re now living in the gravity environment we’re in here.

“Theory suggests that, therefore, you can spend longer in space, and you can therefore explore further and deeper into space.”

He added: “We’re fundamentally a ‘keeping humans alive’ business.”

The concept of a rotating anti-gravity space station was first proposed by the Russian rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and was later championed by German-American space pioneer Wernher von Braun.

It works because, as the station rotates, it creates an outward force, pushing astronauts towards the floor, which, if done at the correct speed, feels indistinguishable from planetary gravity.

At present, astronauts on orbiting space stations such as the International Space Station experience microgravity, and float because the spacecraft is in constant free-fall around Earth.

On deeper space missions, such as travelling to the Moon, astronauts experience true zero gravity.

But living without gravity is hugely detrimental to human health, causing bone and muscle loss, heart deconditioning, immune system changes, and vision and cognition problems.

Space agencies have toyed with the idea of creating gravity by spinning space stations for decades to avoid the health issues, but until now, it has remained firmly in the realm of science fiction. The concept was explored in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

But several firms are working on anti-gravity systems, and last year, the Russian state rocket company Energia submitted plans for a space base that would rotate five times a minute, creating a centrifugal force mimicking 50 per cent of Earth’s gravity.

Vast plans to launch its first space habitation module Haven-1 next year, and will follow it up with a full space station Haven-2 operational by 2030. After that, it will begin work on its artificial gravity station, which it expects to take a decade or more.

The station will have a crew of 40 and will generate artificial gravity by rotating end over end at 3.5 rpm.

“The idea is to take these space stations much further out in the Solar System,” added Mr Shelley.

“That’s a much longer timeline, we’re talking a decade or more and it’s more of our own company goal rather than trying to meet a goal that’s set out by government agencies.

“But before you can spin a space station to create artificial gravity, you have to learn how to build and operate a station, and that’s really what Haven-1 and Haven-2 is about.”

Jed McCaleb, the founder of Vast, has said he wants to enable millions of people to live in the Solar System, allowing civilisation to grow while preserving Earth.

Speaking about who the first inhabitants might be, Mr Shelley added: “Haven-1 and Haven-2 are fundamentally science platforms, so it may be a private individual who flies, but it’s a private individual who will go with a science programme in mind.

“Then there are high net worth individuals who are looking for sort of the next chapter, the next challenge in their life,” he said. “They have the financial resources to be able to take on this very unique adventure, but are looking to invest their time and try to advance human capability,

“It’s a little bit like the new Everest. It may be ticking somebody’s life to-do list, but we layer on top of that some science that is truly valuable for life and health on Earth.

“There’s a lot of work that’s being done around stem cells, around protein crystal growth, where the private individuals can contribute, they can contribute data towards that, as well as then they can submit their body to being tested and sampled and add that biometric data to the various databases that are looking at how different types of humans react to the space environment.”

Nasa and Stanford University came up with the idea of a rotating space station in 1975, and called it the Stanford Torus. The ring-shaped station was designed to be more than a mile in diameter and house 10,000 permanent residents.

In 2011, Nasa also began development of the Nautilus-X rotating wheel space station, but the project was cancelled because of budget constraints.