67
votes
Accepted
How does the Death Star gravity work?
From the old West End Games D6 Roleplaying Game (Second Edition) supplement Death Star Technical Companion, Chapter Two: Technical Specifications, p. 16, right column:
Gravity within the battle ...
- 10.1k
56
votes
Accepted
Why does Deep Space Nine spin?
According to the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Technical Manual the rotation was driven by four factors:
To control the rotation imparted by the processes of docking and undocking spaceships.
To ...
- 676k
30
votes
Accepted
Why is the crew of spaceships exposed to quakes and trembles in a battle?
This is addressed in the TNG Technical Manual. The Enterprise has artificial gravity (of 1g) pulling the inhabitants downwards. When the ship experiences sudden unexpected movement, the ship is able ...
- 676k
29
votes
Accepted
Is there any explanation as to why small scale vehicles—such as X-Wings and T.I.E. fighters—in “Star Wars” have gravity?
Because if such ships did not have artificial gravity or inertial compensators, the occupant would be reduced to chunky salsa every time the ship sped up, slowed down, or rounded a curve.
This ...
- 38.4k
21
votes
Why does Deep Space Nine spin?
It is not gravitational
We can be quite sure that the station is not spinning for the purpose of creating gravity, because the final scene of "What You Leave Behind" zooms out of an upper Promenade ...
- 9,423
20
votes
Accepted
What's the gravity maintained in Ceres?
As far as I remember, they never gave out that level of detail on the TV show. We're just told that Ceres has much lower gravity than Earth. In the novels that the show is based on, the gravity is ...
- 103k
17
votes
Is there any explanation as to why small scale vehicles—such as X-Wings and T.I.E. fighters—in “Star Wars” have gravity?
For manned craft that travel at the speeds involved in Star Wars, artificial gravity is a necessity.
Small changes in direction would produce forces that would pulverize a human pilot. So if you want ...
- 95.3k
13
votes
Did Kubrick take care to get the strength of artificial gravity correct in "2001: A Space Odyssey"?
Partial answer:
In the book the "carrousel" in Discovery is 35 feet in diameter.
As it made one revolution every ten seconds, this carrousel or centrifuge produced an artificial gravity ...
- 50.3k
12
votes
Accepted
In The Expanse, how does rotating Eros create gravity?
From the source novel, Leviathan Wakes, we learn that people live inside Eros. The spin does indeed threaten to spin them off into space, but the floor (really the exterior walls) prevent this from ...
- 676k
12
votes
Accepted
How does gravity work on Star Wars ships?
The following information about gravity generation is offered by the Force Awakens: Incredible Cross-Sections factbook
Gravity on the Millenium Falcon seems to be generated by the ship's "...
- 676k
11
votes
How does the Death Star gravity work?
This is an excerpt from the excellent Inside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy: The Ultimate Guide to the Incredible Locations of Episodes IV, V, and VI factbook. As you can see, gravity on the Death ...
- 676k
11
votes
Why is there gravity in the pod bay on Discovery One in 2001 and 2010 movies?
If you watch the 2001 clip more carefully, you can see that most of the time, the actors are walking with a very stilted step (also mentioned in comments). Either the floor, or their shoes, are ...
- 11.6k
10
votes
Accepted
Why not increase gravity when an intruder is on board
At least as of the TNG era, the artificial gravity system does not appear to have been designed to be modulated on the fly.
According to Section 12.3: Artificial Gravity Generation of the fully canon ...
- 111k
9
votes
Accepted
How fast did Babylon 5 spin or what was the highest gravity level on board?
There's no technical data that I'm aware of but the show once quoted a rotation of about "60 miles an hour" which was a mistake and would only produce about 0.5g
PBS Space Time did an analysis on ...
- 4,843
8
votes
Are repulsorlifts anti-gravity?
Repulsorlift technology is explicitly called out in the Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Incredible Cross-Sections as being a technology based on anti-gravity.
"Repulsorlifts allow a craft to ...
- 676k
8
votes
Is there any advantage to the design of Yorktown Station from Star Trek Beyond?
In the introductory scene, we see other characters marveling at the station with only McCoy concerned about it;
McCoy: [It] Looks like a damn snow-globe in space just waiting to break!
The ...
- 4,959
8
votes
Accepted
Dead oceans, robot factory farms and freighters, personal anti-gravity transportation devices
I think this is Earthworks by Brian Aldiss.
I wish I could give lots of supporting quotes but I can't find my copy. However I'm sure I remember the refrigerator sized anti-grav units and the man in ...
- 97.3k
8
votes
Why is the crew of spaceships exposed to quakes and trembles in a battle?
Whatever means of generating artificial gravity you have, it can't react to changing acceleration quickly. If it could react quickly, it could conceivably start oscillating (gravity going up and down ...
- 17.2k
7
votes
Accepted
Crime investigation involving quantum computers
The book is Annabelle Scheme by Robin Sloane, available for free on the author's homepage
A Google-like search company develops quantum computers:
For the next forty days, Grail wasn’t just ...
- 86
6
votes
Accepted
Which Sci-Fi work introduced the concept of "Artificial Gravity"?
1930: The exact phrase "artificial gravity".
The OED's earliest citation for the phrase artificial gravity is from Olaf Stapledon's 1930 novel Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far ...
- 159k
5
votes
Is there any advantage to the design of Yorktown Station from Star Trek Beyond?
When you think about how advanced Federation technology really is... the Yorktown starbase is really not a big deal to design and construct (in a short span of time). They could have easily made just ...
- 698
5
votes
What collection of short stories contained the Mother of Invention. About an anti gravity drive on a planet with a heavy diamond content
The story you're describing is "Mother of Invention" by Tom Godwin.
Five fortune hunters are marooned on Aurora - a hitherto unknown earth
type world full of diamonds - diamond boulders, ...
- 676k
5
votes
Independence Day - Why is there gravity in space?
After their ship is reactivated, we can see it floating unsupported in the underground hangar. It clearly has some anti-gravity technology. We also see it putting on crushing acceleration without ...
- 1,374
5
votes
Can't remember book or author for anti-gravity ship
I'm hesitant to give this as an answer, because I don't have any good references and my own memory is pretty hazy, but it could be The Moonlanders, by W. C. Chalk. There's no lens in that story, but ...
- 15.9k
5
votes
Which Sci-Fi work introduced the concept of "Artificial Gravity"?
TvTropes to the rescue!
Listed amongst other examples on Artificial Gravity, under the Literature section, is a book titled Auf zwei Planeten (On Two Planets), written by German Sci-Fi author Kurd ...
- 20.2k
5
votes
Why did Alara have to go home?
It doesn't appear that the technology is cutting-edge, just that it's not something that can normally be done on a ship like the Orville and she needed to get to a high-G world asap.
Captain Mercer: ...
- 676k
5
votes
Did Kubrick take care to get the strength of artificial gravity correct in "2001: A Space Odyssey"?
The book 2001: The Lost Science, which is filled with diagrams and notes from Frederick I. Ordway III (the main science consultant for the movie), says on page 41 that the Discovery has an internal ...
- 56.2k
5
votes
Accepted
What is the acceleration for different crews in the Expanse?
Much of the time, the novels don't specify exact figures - 'heavy burns' are referenced without further detail. That said, there are some clues in odd passages of text.
There are several factors to ...
- 18.9k
4
votes
Why is there gravity in the pod bay on Discovery One in 2001 and 2010 movies?
They have velcro on their shoes.
The stewardess came walking up the narrow corridor to the right of the closely spaced seats. There was a slight buoyancy about her steps, and her feet came away from ...
- 41
4
votes
Why not increase gravity when an intruder is on board
I don't know if there's a canon answer, but one sensible possibility is that this is more likely to kill the person you're trying to capture than trapping them with forcefields and hitting them with ...
- 5,884
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