Why didn't they use the spinning pin wheel design to make gravity?

Structure size and getting the parts to orbit.  It was all about money.  

The Martian has some things good about the ship depicted on that movie.  The parts were all based on current tech and you can see the ISS in it.  The gravity induced portions were sized to be be able to brought to orbit using current tech also.  Though the gravity portions wasted a TON of space inside and it would have been smarter to pack the ship with supplies not a nice open airy gym.  

Are you talking about the ACTUAL International Space Station, that is in orbit now?

A few reasons:

1)  much of the research done on the ISS requires freefall (microgravity).  Adding artificial gravity would negate any reason for having the station in the first place
2)  It really isn't possible at this time to build a rotating station

#2 probably could use some elaboration.
a) The station isn't nearly strong enough to handle anywhere near a G of acceleration.  You'd have to significantly beef up the structure (in addition to redesigning the whole thing), to the point that no current booster could get the modules into space
b) If you use solar panels for power production, rotation is a problem.  You either have to orient the axis of the spin directly towards the sun, or you have to place a mount on the axis which is capable of continuous rotation to maintain the solar panels orientation.  If the solar panels are fixed as in the first option, you have to make the structure capable of holding up under the stress of rotation, which gets stronger the farther you move from the axis.
c)  Doing any work outside the station would not be possible, as you would be "flung off" the station by centrifugal force during an EVA.
d) It would be difficult, if not impossible, to dock or undock anything.  The dock would again have to be directly on the axis of rotation (opposite the solar panels from item b) and would have to rotate at the same speed as the station to dock.  If the center of gravity of the docking vessel is not lined up with the axis of rotation and the docking hub, you will experience torque.  This would also make loading/unloading a docked supply ship rather complicated.
e) You would have to rotate the whole station.  Having a mounted, spinning section (see Russian ship from the film 2010) rotating in relation to another part of the station is asking for a catastrophic accident - you have a bearing operating in the vacuum of space with no way to conduct maintenance and no redundancy.  Eventually it is going to seize and then your ship is going to tear itself apart at the connection.  This also applies to the solar panels previously mentioned, though in that case you'd likely just lose the solar panels, unless of course they then crash into some part of the station after coming loose.

Mike

Another reason is the ring would have to be gigantic compared to the current station.  If you make the ring smaller, you can still get 1g (or even 1/2g would be fine) of gravity but you need to rotate it at a high RPM.  Somewhere around 1 RPM is the max most humans can stand for any length of time without getting sick, and that would require a rather large habitat ring.

As far as docking, you can always counter-spin the docking connector.  It does present some engineering challenges to keeping a seal, but it isn't insurmountable.

Yeah, was asking why they didn't try to build it like that from the start.

One reason is it took years to get the ISS to the size it is today.  The amount of time and resources it would take to build a ring big enough combined with the added problems it would induce on the structure make it unfeasible.

 

worked in 2001

Thanks!

Do a search on "cost per pound of ISSS" and you will see why.

Around $2,0000 per pound to over $10,000 per pound depending on launch vehicle.

That is for EVERY pound you want up there.
ISSS is also low enough to have significant drag that requires periodic boosting to maintain orbit.
The fuel has to be delivered for use.

Along with oxygen, water, and everything else needed to keep the crew alive.

Any question that starts with “why did they” or “why do they” or “why don’t they” always has the same answer.
MONEY!

Weight to orbit and equipment cost are why it costs billions of $ to put national space assets into orbit for intelligence gathering.

Some are above the ISS and some below.
Depends on what you are doing.