GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Gravity (or lack thereof)

POSTED BY: AMNESIACK
UPDATED: Wednesday, October 6, 2004 15:48
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Tuesday, October 5, 2004 8:29 AM

AMNESIACK


I don't know if this has been discussed here before (probably), but I thought I'd bring it up anyway. How do ships in the 'verse maintain gravity on board, especially ships as small as Serenity? The acceptable pseudo-answer is that if they have the technology to terraform uninhabitable planets, then they could have the technology to produce artificial gravity without any sort of spin. That's fine. The question, then, becomes why in "Out of Gas" did the gravity not fail when they lost power? Surely an anti-gravity field would take at least as much power (and likely much more) to function as the life support system would. Any thoughts?

I do, of course realize that (a) Joss and co. are about story-telling, not science and (b) it's expensive and time-consuming to do the wire-work necessary to simulate zero-g in a television show. However, I still think it's a worthy question to ponder.

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Tuesday, October 5, 2004 9:07 AM

EST120


Quote:

Originally posted by amnesiack:
I don't know if this has been discussed here before (probably), but I thought I'd bring it up anyway. How do ships in the 'verse maintain gravity on board, especially ships as small as Serenity? The acceptable pseudo-answer is that if they have the technology to terraform uninhabitable planets, then they could have the technology to produce artificial gravity without any sort of spin. That's fine. The question, then, becomes why in "Out of Gas" did the gravity not fail when they lost power? Surely an anti-gravity field would take at least as much power (and likely much more) to function as the life support system would. Any thoughts?

I do, of course realize that (a) Joss and co. are about story-telling, not science and (b) it's expensive and time-consuming to do the wire-work necessary to simulate zero-g in a television show. However, I still think it's a worthy question to ponder.



well, as for the gravity on the ship under normal working conditions, i always just assumed that the rotating thing with the lights was part of that.

as for the episode out of gas, i think you just have to look at the storytelling rather than continuity and remember than wire work for that long would be incredibly time consuming and probably expensive.

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Tuesday, October 5, 2004 9:10 AM

FIREFLEW


Quote:

Originally posted by est120:
Quote:

Originally posted by amnesiack:
I don't know if this has been discussed here before (probably), but I thought I'd bring it up anyway. How do ships in the 'verse maintain gravity on board, especially ships as small as Serenity? The acceptable pseudo-answer is that if they have the technology to terraform uninhabitable planets, then they could have the technology to produce artificial gravity without any sort of spin. That's fine. The question, then, becomes why in "Out of Gas" did the gravity not fail when they lost power? Surely an anti-gravity field would take at least as much power (and likely much more) to function as the life support system would. Any thoughts?

I do, of course realize that (a) Joss and co. are about story-telling, not science and (b) it's expensive and time-consuming to do the wire-work necessary to simulate zero-g in a television show. However, I still think it's a worthy question to ponder.



well, as for the gravity on the ship under normal working conditions, i always just assumed that the rotating thing with the lights was part of that.

as for the episode out of gas, i think you just have to look at the storytelling rather than continuity and remember than wire work for that long would be incredibly time consuming and probably expensive.



Plus, people floating around a ship is slightly less cinematically drawing than a man crawling along the ground.

Also, perhaps it's some sort of byproduct of something else, like another emergency generator for gravity that they couldn't use for the air since the catalyzer was broken?

___________________________________
Jayne: "Know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I beat you with till you understand who's in command."

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Tuesday, October 5, 2004 9:18 AM

RADHIL


It's apparently not a major effort to fiddle with the grav fields - witness the teaser in the pilot, when they're hauling their cargo inside. Gravity hit the same time the airlock got atmo, so that tells you that (at least for that section of the ship) it's an easy on/off affair that apparently doesn't extend beyond the ship hull. If it's that easy, it can run apart from main power.

Or that's what we can tell ourselves, anyway. As you say, wirework ain't cheap.

I also doubt they'd ever explain how they terraform planets so thoroughly (regardless of actual elements present in planetary makeup or starting atmosphere) that they all manage to look like California scrubland either.

Radhil Trebors
Persona Under Construction

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Tuesday, October 5, 2004 12:56 PM

THERON


Just as a side note (or maybe not) Kahlee makes a comment in the eps The Message that might pertain to this discussion. It is when her and Tracy are in her cabin and they are flying wildly thru the canyons to escape the Feds. Tracy makes some comment about not liking space flight and Kahlee responds with something along the lines of "when entering atmo the gravity of the planet and the gravity of the drive start interacting funny" that is not verbatim (a reason to rewatch that eps, like I needed one). But that leads me to believe that they use a gravity drive of some type.

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Tuesday, October 5, 2004 3:43 PM

AMNESIACK


I do remember her saying that, though I had forgotten which episode it was in. However, if the gravity on ship is a by-product of their propulsion system, then it makes even less sense for it to still be in effect when the engine is broken.

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Tuesday, October 5, 2004 4:12 PM

KAYLEEFRYE


The engine wasn't broken, just the catalyser, so the engine couldn't start up. But the gravity generators are probably on a totally different system than the engine itself, because it's on, what, the top deck, and the pull is coming from the bottom. It's probably integrated into the ventral hull of the ship, with controls possibly in the engine room, or in that crawlspace Kaylee had to go into in Bushwacked to free Serenity from the reaver trap.
Also, the power wasn't out on Serenity in OoG, because there were still lights and communications and stuff. It was just the environmental systems that got blown out in the explosion and the auxiliary didn't kick in (due to same damamge).

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Tuesday, October 5, 2004 7:29 PM

AMNESIACK


The main environmental systems didn't get blown out, though, just the auxilary. It's stated explicitely that the reason the main life support isn't working is because the engine isn't running, which is why the main life support turns back on as soon as the engine is working again. If the gravity drive is hooked to a power source that works without the engine, then one would think that the life support would be too, because of just such an emergency. Although, I suppose that's what the auxilery is for as well.

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Wednesday, October 6, 2004 3:48 PM

THERON


I lean towards the view on this thread that it was just a plot hole that they glossed over. My point with the quote was to show that the ship ran on a gravity drive of some type. There has been some discussion on another thread or three about what makes the ship go and I thought I might insert that comment here.

Of course, the gravity generator could be on a totally different system, but then they probably could have rewired the thing to make the life support work as well. But like I said, just a plot hole and a minor one at that.

TTFN

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