The artificial gravity generators never seem to get destroyed in space battles.

7 months ago by Quilotoa to c/showerthoughts

infinitevalence 138 points 7 months ago

Production costs!

The expanse did this well because they used acceleration not artificial gravity.

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Sephtis 78 points 7 months 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.

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inb4_FoundTheVegan 46 points 7 months ago

Gawwwd, the scene where mid fight there are unsecured wrenches floating around was so beautifully tense.

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manxu 46 points 7 months ago

"Captain, we were hit by a Class IV Photon torpedo in the aft. The production budget exploded!"

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Rhaedas 20 points 7 months ago

And magnetic shoes.

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then_three_more 20 points 7 months ago

That was such a nice touch and just cost some red leds. I'm the books they spend a lot of time on the float (to expensive to burn all the time). The way the TV show got around it all was great

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Rhaedas 15 points 7 months ago

Don't forget the sound, that clunk with every step is what sold it as real.

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AnchoriteMagus 15 points 7 months ago

Just flip around halfway and start slowing down! Free acceleration / deceleration gravity.

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bitjunkie 15 points 7 months ago

They actually do that in The Expanse.

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AnchoriteMagus 10 points 7 months ago

That would be why I brought it up, yes.

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bitjunkie 1 point 7 months ago

Oh ok, got you

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ripcord 4 points 7 months 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.

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chiliedogg 3 points 7 months 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.

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DeathByBigSad 74 points 7 months ago

THE EXPANSE

GO WATCH IT!

No stupid gimmicky "artificial gravity" horseshit, the "gravity" is caused by acceleration and deceleration.

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Buddahriffic 25 points 7 months 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.

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Alberat 11 points 7 months ago

the expanse is the only universe where Epstein actually killed himself

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ripcord 9 points 7 months 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.

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absGeekNZ 6 points 7 months 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.

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Buddahriffic 1 point 7 months ago

Yeah, it's not even that much of a stretch, like that future could be within humanity's reach. Not sure we'd actually want that particular future, but there's just something about realistic sci fi that makes this reality feel cooler.

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ChickenLadyLovesLife 1 point 7 months ago

Matter/antimatter would theoretically be a lot better.

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absGeekNZ 1 point 7 months ago

Indeed.

Total energy available is higher, but that reaction produces radiation as the primary product. Radiation is difficulty to properly direct.

Fusion (aneutronic) produces the bulk of the energy as charged particles, which we can direct with magnetic or electric fields.

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Clasm 11 points 7 months ago

Up until the space magic bullshit, anyway.

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SirActionSack 6 points 7 months ago

So disappointing when the hand waving started.

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reptar 6 points 7 months ago

Well the show didn't finish the story.

E: though, it didn't get less "magical", just more explained in a soft-scifi sense.

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SirActionSack 2 points 7 months ago

I wouldn't know, it got stupid well before the end

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ChaoticEntropy 5 points 7 months ago

Spin up the drum.

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ns1 37 points 7 months ago

Who else is thinking of that one scene near the start of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country?

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AnchoriteMagus 35 points 7 months ago

Or Star Trek: First Contact, when Picard, Worf, and redshirt Neil McDonough test 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.

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Zephorah 5 points 7 months ago

They do throw things out the airlock an awful lot. Though, somehow, Borg don’t have the strength to stop it but Beverly Crusher does.

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AnchoriteMagus 14 points 7 months ago

Beverly Crusher fucked a ghost. She can do anything.

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SippyCup 8 points 7 months ago

My wife abused star trek of being a soap opera at some point. At first I thought, maybe she's just showing up at the worst possible time?

No. It's all of the time. Every episode has some weird soapy bullshit. Beverly fucking a ghost, LaForge fucking a hologram, Riker fucking anything with genitals INCLUDING a hologram. Everybody be fuckin. That's not even the soapiest thing. Voyager is basically Soaps in space.

I love classic trek, but guys I think it's a soap opera.

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ripcord 3 points 7 months ago

Good ol' Blazin Bev

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Tollana1234567 2 points 7 months ago

and had her own PERSONAL UNIVERSE she got trapped in.

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snooggums 3 points 7 months ago

That was my first thought and I am having trouble thinking of additional examples.

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GraniteM 2 points 7 months ago

I assume that the Federation has better space OSHA regulations that mandate more reliable artificial gravity than the Klingons.

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TranquilTurbulence 32 points 7 months 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.

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early_riser 15 points 7 months ago
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TranquilTurbulence 3 points 7 months 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.

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early_riser 2 points 7 months ago
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TranquilTurbulence 1 point 7 months ago

Definitely!

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tgirlschierke 5 points 7 months ago

Ah, Murphy's Law in action.

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ripcord 3 points 7 months ago

Wait how is that murphy's law

Edit: AHA - you couldn't remember what it actually is and wanted a nerd to give you the right answer!

I am very very mildly smart!

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TranquilTurbulence 2 points 7 months ago

Precisely! A butterfly flaps its wings in Tokyo, and two weeks later in Denver, a black cat walks under a ladder while Myrphy is working on some cables.

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wjrii 25 points 7 months ago

"Gravity plating!" As long as there is floor, you're good.

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MonkderVierte 6 points 7 months ago

Magnetic shoes?

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atomicbocks 3 points 7 months ago

I’m glad somebody else caught this, it always irritated me in Enterprise when they insisted that it was a gravity generator and not just plating.

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Tollana1234567 1 point 7 months 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.

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martin 2 points 7 months 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.

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Nalivai 20 points 7 months 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.

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PlutoniumAcid 22 points 7 months ago

Gravy. You're thinking of gravy.

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Nalivai 5 points 7 months ago

Well, now I am

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ChickenLadyLovesLife 2 points 7 months ago

You mean Bolognese?

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Agent641 2 points 7 months ago

The movie with Sandra Bullock trapped in space?

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SaveTheTuaHawk 8 points 7 months ago

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ripcord 6 points 7 months ago

Thanks, Calvin's dad

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jaycifer 13 points 7 months 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.

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tychosmoose 2 points 7 months ago

Moonraker has a similar scene.

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XiberKernel 12 points 7 months 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.

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GreyEyedGhost 1 point 7 months 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.

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captain_aggravated 12 points 7 months 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.

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Goodlucksil 12 points 7 months ago

The Undiscovered Country is VI. Star Trek IV is The Voyage Home. Both are great, anyways.

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ripcord 4 points 7 months ago

One is a great Star Trek movie. The other is a beloved comedy starring Star Trek people.

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backalleycoyote 6 points 7 months ago

Star Trek IV: The One With the Whales

A go to for sick days in bed for years.

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NotMyOldRedditName 4 points 7 months ago

I never know the number, but I know the whales!

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Tattorack 11 points 7 months ago

Well... Star Trek The Undiscovered Country.

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girthero 6 points 7 months ago

Yep! One of the more rememberable parts... Floating pink Klingon blood droplets everywhere!

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x00z 11 points 7 months 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.

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early_riser 11 points 7 months ago
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GreenBeanMachine 8 points 7 months ago
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Quilotoa 4 points 7 months ago

It would make sweeping really hard.

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GreenBeanMachine 5 points 7 months ago
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x00z 2 points 7 months ago

I always thought of mini black holes in the floors.

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ColonelThirtyTwo 7 points 7 months ago

Titan AE

"Just think of it as floaty time!"

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raldone01 1 point 7 months ago

I like the movie and atmosphere but damn the villains are whack

I wish there were some spinoff or something similar.

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ColonelThirtyTwo 1 point 6 months ago

There are a few tie in novels iirc. I read one a long time ago that took place during the time skip after earth blows up.

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Arcanoloth 7 points 7 months ago

Star Trek VI - The Undiscovered Country did it, even making it a point during the Trial ;-)

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AmidFuror 7 points 7 months ago

If it were expected to be more than a 1 in 1000 risk, they would probably have handles on the walls and ceilings to help move about during an emergency.

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MyMindIsLikeAnOcean 7 points 7 months ago

What you’re really saying is there aren’t enough big budget sci fi things to watch.

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TarnFan 5 points 7 months 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.

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ripcord 2 points 7 months 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

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TarnFan 1 point 7 months ago

The triangles are supposed to be their cybertronian forms before they disguised themselves as earth vehicles.

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ripcord 1 point 7 months ago

But in their robot forms they still looked like jets

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TarnFan 1 point 6 months ago

Could be an oversight or animation error

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Griffus 5 points 7 months 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.

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ThunderQueen 2 points 7 months ago
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FordBeeblebrox 4 points 7 months ago

Yes, and continue on about 30 years after the show, giving an actual conclusion to the story.

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ThunderQueen 2 points 7 months ago
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FordBeeblebrox 3 points 7 months ago

Strap in and wait for the juice, the show never really leaves our solar system

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ripcord 4 points 7 months ago

Even when the life support systems have completely lost power, everyone is dying, etc. Gravity is the one system too critical to reroute.

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TwodogsFighting 4 points 7 months ago

Cough, Undiscovered Country.

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HubertManne 3 points 7 months 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.

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Tollana1234567 3 points 7 months ago

starships have redundancies most likely, much like the life support systems. its like artificial gravity isnt coming from an actual generator, but the whole ship itself in some unknown mechanism, most scifi genre dont explain how its being created, it looks more like an energy field throughout the whole ship generated from every "system" in the internally.

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Corkyskog 3 points 7 months ago

Adrian Tchaikovsky has some sci-fi books that make use of this idea.

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ChaoticEntropy 2 points 7 months ago

Sounds expensive... what if we just chalked it up to magic?

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sugarfoot00 3 points 7 months ago

Not magic. The artificial gravity stabilizers are directly enhanced by the production budget stabilizers, which keep them in check.

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Wataba 1 point 7 months ago

I prefer it that way.

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

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