Artificial gravity theories by mal4prez

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Artificial gravity theories

POSTED BY: MAL4PREZ
UPDATED: Wednesday, February 22, 2006 07:25
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Tuesday, February 21, 2006 12:06 PM

Wow, my first thread - cool!

So Serenity's artificial gravity plays a role in the fanfic I'm writing. I'm a science geek and I hate it when the tech part of sci-fi is way unbelievable, and I also have to stay true to what was setup in the series/BDM. So I need to research a bit, and it's easier asking you people than researching by myself!

Does anyone have ideas about the terminology/technology involved? I know it makes things bumpy when they first enter atmo - that's from the Message, right? I don't recall anything else.

Thanks for the help!
m4p

Ask Dr. Science ... he knows more than you do.
"I have a Master's degree ... in science!"

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Tuesday, February 21, 2006 12:25 PM

MAL4PREZ

Shoot, bad timing on my part. I start a thread then I have to leave! Post some ideas anyway and I'll be back to chat about them tomorrow.

Guten nacht!
m4p

Ask Dr. Science ... he knows more than you do.
"I have a Master's degree ... in science!"

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Tuesday, February 21, 2006 12:33 PM

DAVESHAYNE

Quote:
Originally posted by mal4prez:
Does anyone have ideas about the terminology/technology involved? I know it makes things bumpy when they first enter atmo - that's from the Message, right? I don't recall anything else.

Thanks for the help!

The Serenity RPG has a little bit to say about this subject but not much. It list 3 uses of gravity control:

The 1st it terms Screening which, "reduces the pull of one object (usually a planet or moon) on another (a spaceship, hovercraft, or maybe a chandelier) and essentially the other way around as well." This makes flight (especially spcaeflight) much more practical as a means of transportation.

2nd "Artificial gravity works the other way, pretending to be a planet-sized mass and pulling on everything in it's range. Artificial gravity provides nearly the same effect as normal gravity inside a screening field and also on ships in free fall."

The 3rd has to do with creating the proper conditions for fusion reactions for power generation.

Hope this helps.

David

"A lot of people are asking me, you know, what exactly is Firefly? It's a tv show you morons!" - Joss Whedon

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Tuesday, February 21, 2006 1:36 PM

SIGMANUNKI

It's never been explained.

Kaylee has said that it (paraphrase) "tosses the lunch about when the gravity drive fights with natural gravity."

So, the gravity drive somehow "knows" how much gravity is being produced by the natural surroundings and creates gravity to make it seems as though the ship has Earth norm (in the right direction). How far the natural gravity "field" has effect is up for grabs. But, for sci-fi purposes, from the first minutes of Serenity, I'd say it's very specific about where it can or cannot do it.

I would assume that when the ship enters into a large gravity well, whatever is controlling the gravity on the gravity drive gets confused a bit - probably can't adjust that quick. Thus the "argument" between natural and artificial gravity when entering atmo of a planet/moon/etc.

Hope that made some kind of sense.

----
"We're in a giant car heading into a brick wall at 100 miles/hr and everybody's arguing about where they want to sit."
-David Suzuki

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Tuesday, February 21, 2006 1:58 PM

DAVESHAYNE

Just thought of some situations regarding the RPG descriptions I posted upthread. Should the "screening" fail while in atmo the ship is gonig to be in very big trouble of the smacking into the ground sort.

If the screening is still functioning but the artificial gravity is off (either deliberately or do to failure) then the ship becomes a zero gravity chamber and things will just float about. You see a bit of this at the start of Serenity the episode when Mal, Zoe, and Jayne float into the airlock with the crates and then fall to the ground as gravity is applied.

David

"A lot of people are asking me, you know, what exactly is Firefly? It's a tv show you morons!" - Joss Whedon

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Wednesday, February 22, 2006 3:46 AM

MAL4PREZ

Thanks! This is good info.

Now I just have to make a little technobabble.

Dave - who comes up with the stuff in the RPG? I know nothing about how that is set up. Does it come from the Visual companion or something?

m4p

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Wednesday, February 22, 2006 3:47 AM

MAL4PREZ

double - how did that happen?

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Wednesday, February 22, 2006 7:25 AM

DAVESHAYNE

Quote:
Originally posted by mal4prez:
Thanks! This is good info.

Now I just have to make a little technobabble.

Dave - who comes up with the stuff in the RPG? I know nothing about how that is set up. Does it come from the Visual companion or something?

Some of it comes via various sources (the series, the movie, and various other tie ins but for a lot of it (like the section on gravity stuff) they extrapolate and even *gasp* make it up. So it's not the most official source but where it's the only source (as it is in this instance) and somewhat plausible I'm inclined to follow it.

David

"A lot of people are asking me, you know, what exactly is Firefly? It's a tv show you morons!" - Joss Whedon

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