THE EXPANSE
GO WATCH IT!
No stupid gimmicky “artificial gravity” horseshit, the “gravity” is caused by acceleration and deceleration.
The artificial gravity generators never seem to get destroyed in space battles.
Submitted 2 weeks ago by Quilotoa@lemmy.ca to showerthoughts@lemmy.world
Comments
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Which is fucking cool because it’s one of the few space travel things that really does work. Like if we can figure out the fuel/propulsion thing and some kind of equivalent to deflector shields (not for space battles but for all the random shit in space that could destory your ship in a collision, especially if we get up to relativistic speeds), we could have space travel where you can walk around normally on the ship.
Also the gravity increasing ships like Goku used in DBZ, so we could actually have someone doing extreme gravity training while en route to a big fight.
And it works for both acceleration and deceleration, only difference is you’re either travelling up or down.
Also loved the special seats they used when doing combat maneuvers. ST didn’t just make up artificial gravity (since their ships moved forwards rather than up), they had inertial dampeners, because the evasive maneuvers would have been much more dangerous than the shocks from getting hit.
ST is more rooted in science than SW, but parts of it are just as much fantasy as the force, which was depressing to realize when you’re hoping for humanity to eventually go in that direction. The biggest human tech fantasy in the Expanse is an engine upgrade that gives improved thrust and efficiency. Not to light speed, but just by like an order of magnitude. And they’ve even got a brutally realistic scene about the discovery that was great world building imo.
Alberat@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
the expanse is the only universe where Epstein actually killed himself
ripcord@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I mean, gravity is just acceleration anyway.
Weird fucking acceleration due to the curvature of spacetime and how shit moves through time. But still, just acceleration.
absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz 2 weeks ago
To be fair; if you could build a fusion torch and fully direct the flow; aneutronic fusion fits the bill; the thrust numbers they are using are not crazy.
You would use stupid amount of fuel to get that much delta-v; but with advanced reactors using readily available fuel sources…maybe not an issue.
Clasm@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Up until the space magic bullshit, anyway.
ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
Spin up the drum.
ns1@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
Who else is thinking of that one scene near the start of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country?
AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Or Star Trek: First Contact, when Picard, Worf, and redshirt Neil McDonough testt out their zero G combat training, further cementing the fact that Star Trek only remembers that space has no gravity when it’s relevant to the plot.
Zephorah@discuss.online 2 weeks ago
They do throw things out the airlock an awful lot. Though, somehow, Borg ding have the strength to stop it but Beverly Crusher does.
snooggums@piefed.world 2 weeks ago
That was my first thought and I am having trouble thinking of additional examples.
GraniteM@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I assume that the Federation has better space OSHA regulations that mandate more reliable artificial gravity than the Klingons do.
TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Admit it, you wanted to ask which movies and shows have done it. Instead of asking for people to tell you what the correct answer is, it’s far more effective to post the wrong answer, and wait for the flood of answers to arrive.
early_riser@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Someone has spent a lot of time on Linux forums
TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
LOL. Got me. 😅
But there’s more than that to it. I think there’s some strange default setting in the human mind that makes us want to correct mistakes. Maybe it’s all about setting the record straight, being correct or whatever.
tgirlschierke@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Ah, Murphy’s Law in action.
ripcord@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Wait how is that murphy’s law
TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Precisely! A butterfly’s flutter in Tokyo can lead to Murphy’s cables getting tangled up two weeks later in Denver.
wjrii@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
“Gravity plating!” As long as there is floor, you’re good.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Magnetic shoes?
atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I’m glad somebody else caught this, it always irritated me and Enterprise when they insisted that it was a gravity generator and not just plating.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
i think its plating for trek, thats why you can turn it off in some areas and not others. cant say the same for other shows, they likely use a similar mechanism.
martin@lemmy.caliban.io 2 weeks ago
This is covered in the Attack Pattern Trunks web comic. If I remember correctly it works even when all power is disabled due to thermal power or some such, I’d have to go searching through all the episodes to cover it.
Nalivai@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Gravity is a very dense liquid. Generator makes it in big batches at a time and it just stays there for long even after the generator is gone. After the battle is done and everything is repaired, they just top up the pool and all is good.
PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Gravy. You’re thinking of gravy.
Nalivai@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Well, now I am
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
ripcord@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Thanks, Calvin’s dad
jaycifer@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
On a space station more than a space battle, but Titan AE had a scene that made good use of this. The station is old, and early in the scene the gravity generator goes on the fritz, causing everyone to float until some percussive maintenance gets it working again. When bad guys show up Matt Damon shoots the generator to cause some confusion and let him escape faster by pushing off toward the exit.
tychosmoose@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Moonraker has a similar scene.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
In Star Trek IV, The Undiscovered Country, exactly that happened. It is kind of a unique scene, because it had to be a bitch to film.
Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
The Undiscovered Country is VI. Star Trek IV is The Voyage Home. Both are great, anyways.
ripcord@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
One is a great Star Trek movie. The other is a beloved comedy starring Star Trek people.
XiberKernel@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Gravity is on a separate subsystem & power supply, because without gravity people couldn’t reasonably move and fix the rest of the ship, so even when compared to general life support, it’s the most critical function and the most isolated.
And production cost.
GreyEyedGhost@piefed.ca 2 weeks ago
In David Weber’s Honorverse, artificial gravity is based on the drive system, and was routinely considered both in ship design and battle outcomes.
Tattorack@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Well… Star Trek The Undiscovered Country.
girthero@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yep! One of the more rememberable parts… Floating pink blood droplets everywhere!
x00z@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I am a big fan of sci-fi and understand how expensive weightlessness is to film, so combine that with the amount of shows that have been canceled and I completely accept the fact that they try to keep this more fictional than science.
early_riser@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Doylist explanation: it would be too expensive for the FX department.
As it happens, the same worldbuilding project I mentioned in another post here sort of addresses this. The same aliens mentioned there don’t use artificial gravity at all. Being arboreal creatures they’re well suited to microgravity and can happily live permanently in zero G. Upon meeting humans and learning that we want artificial gravity (specifically centrifugal gravity), they wonder why we spent all the effort to get away from gravity only to spend even more effort to bring it back.
Since human orbital colonies take the form of O’Neil cylinders, you can cut off the gravity by halting the cylinder’s rotation. If stopped abruptly enough this would cause a lot of damage initially as objects go flying. It would also put the terrestrial, bipedal humans at a disadvantage compared to the aliens with five prehensile extremities.
ColonelThirtyTwo@pawb.social 2 weeks ago
Titan AE
“Just think of it as floaty time!”
raldone01@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I like the movie and atmosphere but damn the villains are whack.
GreenBeanMachine@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
All the floors are made from a special material, much like a magnet that attracts everything. And just like magnets, they are not powered by any external source and don’t need any external systems to control.
Quilotoa@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
It would make sweeping really hard.
GreenBeanMachine@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Why? It’s adjusted (thickness of the material) to exactly match earth’s gravity, so everything is exactly the same.
x00z@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I always thought of mini black holes in the floors.
Arcanoloth@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Star Trek VI - The Undiscovered Country did it, even making it a point during the Trial ;-)
MyMindIsLikeAnOcean@piefed.world 2 weeks ago
What you’re really saying is there aren’t enough big budget sci fi things to watch.
Griffus@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
That’s why I prefer hard SciFi like The Expanse books, where science is a main driver to life and motivations to drive the story.
ThunderQueen@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Ive sen some of the show ad liked it a lot. Are the books even better??
FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yes, and continue on about 30 years after the show, giving an actual conclusion to the story.
TarnFan@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They did in the first episode of Transformers Animated. Granted, that was a cartoon, which made it infinitely easier to have them float in zero gravity than a live action movie.
ripcord@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That’s the episode where for some reason the Deception jets turn into triangles and after sleeping for 6 million years Optimus wakes and just says “thanks” and throws Teletran-1 a thumbs up and also Casey Kasem is there right
TarnFan@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The triangles are supposed to be their cybertronian forms before they disguised themselves as earth vehicles.
HubertManne@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
I find not many things are destroyed unless integral to the plot but there are times where it does because the story wanted it to. I think its more incommon with video games though as it makes a nice alternate gameplay thing to have in.
ripcord@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Even when the life support systems have completely lost power, everyone is dying, etc. Gravity is the one system too critical to reroute.
TwodogsFighting@lemdro.id 2 weeks ago
Cough, Undiscovered Country.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
starships have redundancies most likely, much like the life support systems.
Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Adrian Tchaikovsky has some sci-fi books that make use of this idea.
ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
Sounds expensive… what if we just chalked it up to magic?
sugarfoot00@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Not magic. The artificial gravity stabilizers are directly enhanced by the production budget stabilizers, which keep them in check.
Wataba@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I prefer it that way.
infinitevalence@discuss.online 2 weeks ago
Production costs!
The expanse did this well because they used acceleration not artificial gravity.
Sephtis@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Expanse did it amazingly imo, it also adds some realism into a otherwise very fictional story, which makes it somewhat easier to vibe with it.
inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Gawwwd, the scene where mid fight there are unsecured wrenches floating around was so beautifully tense.
manxu@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
“Captain, we were hit by a Class IV Photon torpedo in the aft. The production budget exploded!”
AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Just flip around halfway and start slowing down! Free acceleration / deceleration gravity.
bitjunkie@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They actually do that in The Expanse.
ripcord@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Well, not free. Acceleration usually requires a bunch of energy.
I guess if you have to do it anyway then it’s a really convenient side-effect.
chiliedogg@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They also made amazing computerized wire rigs for the actors they used in conjunction with motion-controlled cameras. The production of the show was super impressive.
Also - everyone should read the books. They’re fantastic.
Ty Frank, one of the authors and the Amos actor Wes Chatham had a really fun podcast (“Ty and That Guy”) that did lots of fun deep dives on genre stuff.