ONE REVOLUTION PER MINUTE is a short film I made to explore my fascination with artificial gravity in space.
 
It takes place aboard the "SSPO Esperanta" - a planetary orbiter that spins around itself at a rate of one revolution per minute (1 RPM). With a radius of 450 meters, the spin generates artificial gravity with an effect of approximately 0.5 g along its main deck.
 
With the "Esperanta" I wanted to create a leisure-like environment, such as a hotel or cruise ship, and explore what the views could be like onboard when the orbiter visits some of the worlds in our solar system. I was also particularly interested in how light and shadows from the sun play around in the interior as it spins around.
For those reasons, I decided to keep all artificial lights off - with the exception of some emergency lights to avoid complete darkness - and to only let natural light illuminate the interiors. As this made the place appear quite desolate, I found it interesting to imagine someone being onboard, alone…
 
Realistically - and admittedly somewhat reluctantly - I assume that while building a structure like this is very much possible, it would be quite impractical for human passengers.
 
Putting aside the perhaps most obvious problem with those wide windows being a security hazard, I believe that the perpetually spinning views would be extremely nauseating for most humans, even for short visits. Even worse, I suspect - when it comes to the comfort of the experience - would be the constantly moving light and shadows from the sun.
A solution to the two latter problems could be to make the radius of the structure larger, and thus make the spin rate slower. And a solution to all of the above would of course be to have no windows at all. The reasons for choosing the dimensions that I did, as well as the large windows are all of course aesthetic.
When figuring out the dimensions, I wanted to make the structure as large as possible, while still getting a clear visual sense of the curvature in the interiors. That is how I ended up with the 450-meter radius and 1 RPM spin rate. And without windows, this short film would surely not be any visually interesting at all.
 
So, fingers crossed for some extremely durable transparent materials being invented in the future - allowing leisure space travelers to enjoy both artificial gravity as well as nice views of the solar system.
Credits:
WRITTEN, PRODUCED & DIRECTED BY - Erik Wernquist
MUSIC BY - Cristian Sandquist
LIVE ACTION PHOTOGRAPHY BY - Christine Leuhusen
THE PASSENGER PERFORMED BY - Lars Knubb
P.A. VOICE PERFORMED BY - Hanna Mellin
VISUALS BY - Erik Wernquist
THANK YOU
Caj Müller
Harold "Sonny" White
Nic Stacey
Paul Odgren
Metronome Rental AB
The visuals of this short film were made in Maxon Cinema 4D with Otoy Octane Render and composited in Adobe After Effects.​​​​​​​
The SSPO ESPERANTA:
Below is a closer look at the dimensions and different modules of the orbiter from the short, and a few additional renders of its exterior. Click images for larger resolution.
STILLS GALLERY:
Below is a gallery of selected frames from the film. Click for larger resolution.
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