Artificial Gravity: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Virtually all [[Sci Fi]] space ships have some form of artificial gravity. The technology behind this is [[Hand Wave|never quite explained.]]

In [[Space Opera]], artificial gravity is the ''last'' thing that breaks when a ship is damaged. You might have lost shields, weapons, drive systems, and half the hull, but things will still fall when dropped. This makes a certain degree of sense, as fixing a ship while floating around helplessly would probably take much longer. Artificial gravity is also essential for long-term flights, for if you spend too long in Zero G, then your muscles will become a painful, squishy mush once you get back to regular gravity.

 

 

Also, once you have the knack of making gravity, switching it off shouldn't be that much of a problem, right? Cue the [[Anti Gravity]] hovercraft. Related to [[Gravity Sucks]]. [[No Gravity for You]] is what happens when characters get [[Genre Savvy]] about the [[Fridge Logic]] of this trope. When it's a superpower, you get a [[Gravity Master]].

 

A [[Necessary Weasel]] trope.

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

** It was explained in the manga. They seem to use some strange, very high density crystal only found on Mars as gravity source, and send it to parts of the planet where it's needed through pipe networks controlled by organ-like instrument. This might not considered as artificial gravity, though, as mass IS gravity, so it's normal gravity.

* The manga series ''[[Cannon God Exaxxion]]'' does interesting things with this trope. Rather than simply a [[Hand Wave]] for people walking around a spaceship like it was an earthbound movie set, they explore all kinds of neat stuff you can do once you've made gravity & inertia your yours, including, but not limited to:

* [[Uchuu Senkan Yamato]] is an anime work that plays this trope deadly straight. Seems to come along with [[Space Is an Ocean]]. The Yamato's operations are badly disrupted when the gravity fails in season 2. They are actually unable to launch their fighters, what with the fighters floating around wildly in the hangar.

* Sol Bianka had a scene where one space pirate complained about the gravity being off. Meanwhile the other one was fixing the ship told them to stop complaining and wait it out

 

 

== Comic Books ==

* In ''[[Tintin|Explorers on the Moon]]'', Moon-Rocket has an artificial gravity system that gets turned off a few times, both accidentally and intentionally.

** More accurately, the rocket accelerates at a rate equal to Earth's gravity (gravity equalling acceleration and all that). Turning off the rocket motor has the effect of turning off the rocket's ability to keep the passengers on the floor.

* ''[[Project Moonbase]]'' (1953) had people walking along the corridors of a space station ''upside down'' past people going the other way due to its variable gravity. They avoided floating off the floor because they were wearing "magnetic shoes".

* ''[[Red Planet (film)|Red Planet]]'' had a ship that used centrifugal sections for gravity. They take it one step closer to realism by having two sections rotating in opposite directions, as rotation in one direction only would throw the ship off course and end up wasting a lot of fuel to correct.

* ''[[Sunshine (film)|Sunshine]]'' is a fine example of a variant of this trope, in which gravity and air appear to be intimately connected. Everything in an air lock is floating around until the lock is pressurized... whereupon its contents crash to the ground.

** Although this is probably more to do with [[Rule of Cool|the rule of cool]] of having a zero-G gunfight than any attempt at [[Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness|hard SF]].

** It is notable, because rare in Star Trek was Zero-gravity ever used. No matter how well beaten a ship was the gravity always worked through thick and thin. Life support out? Power completely lost? Gravity's still on.

*** This has a [[Hand Wave]] in the Star Trek technical manual, where they state the gravity generators continue producing 80% of their normal gravity for some period of time without power. We hear this in the background of several Star Trek episodes "Gravity down to 80%"

* The ''Venture Star'' in ''[[Avatar (film)|Avatar]]'' has a centrifuge section; the only scene aboard it, though, takes place in a free fall zone.

* The R.L.S. Legacy in ''[[Treasure Planet]]'' is equipped with artificial gravity. {{spoiler|During the fight with Mr. Scroop, B.E.N. accidentally disengages the A.G. while playing with plugs, and Jim sends Scroop flying through space forever.}}

* ''[[Forbidden Planet]]'' has it. Not much is said of it onscreen, but it's made obvious by the crew of the ship moving about the ship like normal in the first scene.

* ''[[Planet of the Apes]]'' has it in the opening scene; we clearly see Taylor walking over to his cryosleep pod to get inside.

* In the ''[[Known Space]]'' stories by [[Larry Niven]], human spaceships at first either used inertial (spinning) pseudo-gravity, or learned to do without. At least, until the Man-Kzin Wars (the Kzinti having developed artificial gravity, which humans reverse-engineered).

* ''[[Lacuna]]'' has artificial gravity based on some [[Applied Phlebotinum]] introduced in chapter 1.

* Taken for granted in the ''[[Perry Rhodan]]'' universe. A portable anti-gravity generator is one of the first few pieces of alien technology that the titular hero brings back home from the moon in the earliest issues, and virtually every civilization (certainly every FTL-capable one) has artificial gravity on its ships and uses anti-gravity in lifts and vehicles. This is handwaved with the idea that working hyperspace physics by default includes some concepts of manipulating 'normal' spacetime, including gravity. Like any technology, however, the systems can't work without a power supply; a suitably wrecked but still existing starship will revert to zero-G conditions once the power cuts out.

* In [[Alan Dean Foster]]'s ''[[Humanx Commonwealth]]'' series, the method of [[Faster-Than-Light Travel|FTL propulsion]] used by most spacefaring races is accomplished by creating an extremely powerful artificial gravity field in front of a spaceship, which then pulls the vessel towards it. This pushes the field further forward, and so forth. As the ship approaches the speed of light, the distortion induced by the field shunts it into [[Subspace or Hyperspace|"space-plus"]]. The field is also used to create artificial gravity for the ship's inhabitants.

* In Piers Anthony's [[Apprentice Adept]] series, the habitable areas on Proton have earthlike gravity due to devices focussing the natural gravity of the planet into those areas: the surrounding landscape has ''lower'' gravity than normal for the planet, and is [[Mordor|suffering for it]].

* A standard technology in the ''[[Uplift]]'' universe, so much so that at least one alien race believed that flight was impossible without [[Anti Gravity]]. Many Earthclan ships still have rotating ring segments to emphasize their "wolfling" status to the Galactics.

 

== Live Action TV ==

** The smaller Earth vessels have no such segments, and during an interior scene in one of the movies, we see the crew spends their time strapped into their seats; random objects float around the bridge.

** Also, it is eventually mentioned that the tractor beams used by some of the more advanced ships are actually part of the same system that provides gravity and propels the ships (it propels the ship by making it "fall" in the desired direction of travel).

** There was one scene where crew in spacesuits were shown to be carefully traversing one of the flightpods with magnetic boots. This is consistent with ships being magnetically sealed to the flightdeck.

** Interestingly, one ship in the ''Galactica'''s civilian fleet (the ''Zephyr'') has a large and distinctive ring that rotates to provide gravity. Ron Moore wanted to do part of an episode on board it in a nod to ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', but was unable to for budget reasons. [[All There in the Manual|Apparently,]] the Colonials used to rely on this method of artificial gravity generation, and the ''Zephyr'' retains the design for novelty value (it's a luxury liner). The ring stops spinning for {{spoiler|repairs after being hit by two Cylon missiles}} and {{spoiler|when no-one is on board as the ship and the rest of the fleet are flown into the sun}}.

* In the reality TV series ''Space Cadets'', a group of gullible, ignorant people were successfully fooled into believing that such technology exists now and is in use in manned orbital flights.

* Exception: The BBC series ''[[Star Cops]],'' where odd camera angles and very careful movement while clinging onto objects was used to simulate the freefall environments of space stations of the series.

** Considering a warp field is essentially a massive graviton field, it stands to reason that any warp-capable civilization also has AG.

** Early in the series the creators put together a tape of intercom chatter to play as background during bridge scenes. At one point one of the voices reports that "Gravity is down to point eight." This tape was used over and over, particularly when the ''Enterprise'' had been attacked, which meant that the artificial gravity went down to eighty percent a fair amount of the time.

** In the novelization of one of the Star Trek movies, Captain Kirk stepped out of an Earthlike-gravity zone into a zone which recreated the much more powerful gravity of the planet Vulcan. There then an amusing scene where Kirk was pushed a few inches or so into the air by this sudden change, and came back down, injuring himself in the process.

** Some of the [[All There in the Manual|Tech Manuals]] published to accompany the various series have tried to [[Hand Wave]] away the reason why the gravity never seems to fail, even if the ship loses power. The reason is that systems generating gravity have to spin up when powered on and keep going for several hours even if the power is cut off meaning that gravity disappears slowly rather than cutting off all at once.

* All the spaceships in [[Stargate SG-1]] have some sort of artificial gravity. In addition, Ba'al has a research base dedicated to the manipulation of artificial gravity, complete with a jail cell that shares all the same drawbacks as a [[Force Field Door]].

== Tabletop RPG ==

* The ''[[Jovian Chronicles]]'' RPG series, which draws inspiration from Gundam is set in a future where humans have colonized the inner planets, the asteroid belt and jupiter, but space stations need a 'ring' section to rotate for habitation, and most larger vessels have a habitation arm that spins to do the same.

** 1st Edition module S3 ''Expedition to the Barrier Peaks''. The starship has multiple examples of gravity control technology, including the drop chutes/tubes, inside the control room and the worker robots.

* ''[[Traveller]]''. Space ships have "grav plates" that generate a 1G floor field, and robots can fly while on the surface of planets using an antigravity device.

* Inverted in [[First-Person Shooter]] ''[[Crysis (series)|Crysis]]'': Aliens that presumably live in a zero-gravity environment use a spaceship that creates just that. The main character moves around using thrusters.

* In ''[[Dead Space (video game)|Dead Space]]'', it appears that all ships, from tiny repair shuttles to massive planet-cracking mining ships have artificial gravity. However, certain areas of the ship (such as the place giant rocks are broken down to extract minerals), don't, and the artificial gravity onboard the Ishimura is failing in other areas due to the whole [[Zombie Apocalypse|Necromorph infestation]] thing going on. In fact, actions in Zero-G are a fairly major gameplay element (Isaac's maintenance suit has magnetic boots, so he doesn't float).

** In fact ''The Fall of Reach'' has ''The Pillar of Autumn'' generate gravity via centrifugal force. In-game, it's generated by Phlebotinum. Worth noting that it was written before the game came out; it's only one of several errors.

** The Covenant also have apparently have smaller gravity generators which they use to put more strength in their aptly named Gravity Hammers. Monitors also have it to an extent, giving them limited telekinetic abilities.

*** Ships not designed to land in atmosphere - for example, cruisers and dreadnoughts - also have their decks oriented with the "floor" toward the engines, so that the thrust will provide artificial gravity while moving.

** Most biotics powers are based on control of artificial gravity. Throw is a directed burst of gravity that grabs someone and throws them away from the biotic by creating a powerful gravitational pull behind them. Lift/Pull grabs an opponent in a zero gravity field that pulls them into the air. Warp creates powerful, distorted gravity fields around the target that pulls apart their armor and tears up flesh and muscle. Singularity creates an intense high-gravity zone that draws all objects around it into the area of effect.

* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' is known for its space levels that actually ''reverse'' the gravity, making you walk on the ceiling, or, in the case of [[Gimmick Level|Crazy Gadget]], the walls.

* Averted by the upcoming game ''Shattered Horizon'', which is a multiplayer FPS whose big draw is the complete freedom of movement provided by a zero-gravity environment.

* Used to good effect in ''[[Unreal II: The Awakening|Unreal II the Awakening]]'' where the artificial gravity starts failing, allowing the player to make larger leaps than normal, it then starts playing up even more pulling the player against the walls instead of the floor.

* Gravity manipulation in the ''[[Space Empires]]'' series takes many forms, from ships, to preventing [[Earthshattering Kaboom|pesky planet killing weapons]], to creating [[Dyson Sphere|DysonSpheres]] if your tech level is high enough.

* In ''Roblox'', most levels that are in space have this.

** Galatea claims a ship's artificial gravity, and all related systems (the ability to make a ship hover, etc.), run off a separate power source than everything else on the ship; a footnote then says that this is why, "as all space opera fans know, the artificial gravity never, ever goes out!"

* The ships in ''[[Alien Dice]]'' opperate with artificial gravity.

 

== Web Original ==

 

== Western Animation ==

** In "The Jihad" the [[Big Bad]] creates a zero-gravity area inside the building so his opponents can fight him in the air.

* ''[[Futurama]]'' - played straight, as "Gravity Pumps" have been invented. There's even a scene where Bender is flying <s>drunk</s> sober up-side down on a planet, and everything inside is still "pulled to the floor" just like normal.

** Also, in the episode "Brannigan Begin Again," the crew is delivering pillows to a world with significantly higher g than earth. Even after they land on the planet, they are unaffected until they step off the platform that lowered them to the surface. At this point Fry's normally upright hair falls, Bender's legs collapse, and Brannigan's girdle fails spectacularly.

== Real Life ==

* According to general relativity, it might be possible to induce, through Einstein's general relativity, a spacetime metric that allows for gravity inside a bounded volume, with little effect outside. Evidence points, however, to it taking a ludicrously large amount of negative energy (similar to the quantities required for [[Faster-Than-Light Travel|wormholes and warp drives]], which is several ''Jupiter masses'' for most useful purposes). Fortunately there's actually some wiggle room to [[Hand Wave|wave your hands in]], since the particulars of the relations between gravity and quantum theory are not perfectly understood. A writer can simply say "[[Minovsky Physics|figuring out how M/Superstring/Hologram/The-Turtles-That-Go-All-The-Way-Down Theory worked, revealed an easier way to get artificial gravity (and warp, since they're related)]]". We can, however, in a trivial sense, perfectly simulate Earth's gravity with as little as one Earth mass... just look at [[Shaped Like Itself|Earth]]. This also means that smaller, denser things could have the same gravitational pull as Earth. Compared to the alternative, this is actually more plausible at this time.

* Some hypothetical designs for interplanetary vessels would use steady acceleration to simulate gravity. Such vessels' passenger compartments would rotate 180 degrees halfway through their journey, flipping the floors to correspond with simulated "down" when acceleration is reversed to slow the ship again.

** This also has the advantage of allowing relatively rapid interplanetary travel, taking only days or maybe weeks (if you're traveling out to Pluto or someplace really far), instead of years as it does now. The downside is that the power output from the engine would be gargantuan (meaning that if the engine has any sort of heat leakage, it will likely vaporize from the sheer heat). Real-life engines are generally either hi-thrust/low-exhaust-velocity (like the Space Shuttle) or low-thrust/high-exhaust-velocity (like with ion drives).

[[Category:Acceptable Breaks From Reality]]

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]