GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Gravity?

POSTED BY: BIGWOLF18
UPDATED: Sunday, August 9, 2009 21:56
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Sunday, August 9, 2009 12:47 PM

BIGWOLF18


How does Serenity maintain what appears to be an Earth-normal gravity while in interplanetary space? it doesn't have any rotating parts, (there is a ring around the end of the ship, but thats the outer showing of the engine) and it's doubtful that humanity would have invented any kind of anti-gravity in the 2500's. How do they do it?

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"of course i've gone mad with power, ya ever tried going mad without power? its no fun, nobody listens to you!" The Simpsons Movie

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Sunday, August 9, 2009 1:04 PM

MANGOLO


I had a beef about this -especially in the episode Out of Gas when there is still plenty of gravity on the ship (poor Mal!), but no way for making air- not a simple task, but much easier than making gravity - but hey, it is one of the best episodes (if there is such a thing since they are all great), so I willingly suspend my disbelief.

I have more issue with the science (or lack thereof) in FTL and wormhole travel which is so prevalent in other shows-which again, I willingly suspend my disbelief.

I do draw the line at time travel, unless it is done for comic effect or written really well. Though we have proven we can slow time, so it is science in a way - most often it is used by writers to solve a plot point that they couldn't work out any other way. I do like how Star Trek recently used it to create a whole new timeline in which to move forward within.

Rant over.


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Sunday, August 9, 2009 1:31 PM

KINGEICHOLZ


I did a paper on this at Yale: The spacecraft could, in theory, continuously accelerate in a straight line, forcing objects inside the spacecraft in the opposite direction of the direction of acceleration. Most rockets already accelerate at a sufficient rate to produce several times Earth's gravity but can only maintain these accelerations for several minutes because of a limited supply of fuel. Theoretically, a propulsion system with a very high specific impulse and high thrust-to-weight ratio could accelerate, producing useful levels of artificial gravity for long periods of time. In addition, constant acceleration would provide relatively short flight times around the solar system. A spaceship accelerating (then decelerating) at 1g would reach Mars in 2–5 days, depending on the point in the synodic period. In a number of science fiction plots, acceleration is used to produce artificial gravity for interstellar spacecraft, propelled by as yet theoretical or hypothetical means.

a real man

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Sunday, August 9, 2009 1:42 PM

MANGOLO


Understood, but in Out of Gas they were dead in the water. No acceleration.


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Sunday, August 9, 2009 1:42 PM

PEACEKEEPER

Keeping order in every verse


Quote:

Originally posted by KingEICHOLZ:
I did a paper on this at Yale: The spacecraft could, in theory, continuously accelerate in a straight line, forcing objects inside the spacecraft in the opposite direction of the direction of acceleration. Most rockets already accelerate at a sufficient rate to produce several times Earth's gravity but can only maintain these accelerations for several minutes because of a limited supply of fuel. Theoretically, a propulsion system with a very high specific impulse and high thrust-to-weight ratio could accelerate, producing useful levels of artificial gravity for long periods of time. In addition, constant acceleration would provide relatively short flight times around the solar system. A spaceship accelerating (then decelerating) at 1g would reach Mars in 2–5 days, depending on the point in the synodic period. In a number of science fiction plots, acceleration is used to produce artificial gravity for interstellar spacecraft, propelled by as yet theoretical or hypothetical means.

a real man

Interesting stuff Kingelbert.But the theory you speak of is negated in this instance,because in Out of Gas, the spacecraft is stationary,thus acceleration is zero.How,in this instance is gravity maintained.I see the dilemma in the thread,but poetic license is allowed for the purpose of entertainment I suppose.

Peacekeeper---keeping order in every verse!!!

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Sunday, August 9, 2009 1:56 PM

KINGEICHOLZ


Energy like the energy from the sun is stored in solar panels only in this case it would gravity panels.

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Sunday, August 9, 2009 1:58 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


Holy CRAP! Somebody hijacked Kingerlbert's account again! And this time the hijacker can type! And spell! And use punctuation!

Mystery account-hacker, would you please keep his account for yourself? You're much more interesting!




Mike

Sweeping generalizations are always wrong!

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Sunday, August 9, 2009 2:01 PM

KINGEICHOLZ


Doin't worry Kwicko it's really me just check the date I first signed on.

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Sunday, August 9, 2009 2:03 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


As to the question at hand, I made a conscious decision early on not to get too hung up on the science part of the show, because then it would undoubtedly all fall apart rather quickly.

As for the constant 1g acceleration idea, it's not a bad one, and it's been proposed for other sci-fi stories. My feeling is, though, that Serenity and her crew are ALWAYS rather strapped for cash, so burning at 1g everywhere they go isn't really a likely proposition.



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Sunday, August 9, 2009 4:37 PM

ANONYMOUS1


Quote:

Originally posted by bigwolf18:
How does Serenity maintain what appears to be an Earth-normal gravity while in interplanetary space? it doesn't have any rotating parts, (there is a ring around the end of the ship, but thats the outer showing of the engine) and it's doubtful that humanity would have invented any kind of anti-gravity in the 2500's. How do they do it?



Gravity drive. Invented sometime before the time of Firefly.

In Out of Gas, the Engine was out. The gravity drive must have still been working...because they had gravity.

In The Message, Kaylee explains
Quote:

All this hard banking -- when the gravity drive and actual gravity start working against each other, it tosses your lunch about a bit.


Having gravity drives probably made it alot easier for Blue Sun to make actual Suns...have you seen the Offical Map of the 'verse?





Nathan Fillion's Castle ABC summer reruns Mondays 10/9c Also

2nd season starts Mon Sep 21 10/9c

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Sunday, August 9, 2009 6:06 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


But is there any indication that Blue Sun actually "made" any suns? It's not inconceivable that there could be several suns within a small cluster or planetary system. As I remember it, Jupiter and Saturn are basically "failed suns" themselves, having not gathered quite enough mass and material to collapse down to an ignition point. And if my astronomy podcasts are correct, then there are definitely some binary star systems (at least) that have been found to have planets orbiting them, something that was not too long ago thought impossible because of the orbital mat that would be involved, and the stability problems inherent in any such system. But there they are, not having been told they're too complex to exist, just spinning round and round each other like they've likely been doing for at least a few billion years...

I *DO* remember the gravity drive being mentioned, though.

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Sunday, August 9, 2009 6:26 PM

THEREALME


Serenity clearly has artificial gravity. Remember in the pilot when they brought the scavanged goods aboard, the gravity just turned on and things fell to the floor.

Also in the pilot where Mal is talking with the crew and passengers about how settlers might be dropped on a world with "maybe a herd," Zoe talks about how the terraformed worlds are make as close to habitable as possible, changing atmosphere, temperature AND GRAVITY. They can do this with worlds. Or at least moons.


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Sunday, August 9, 2009 9:56 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN


I had conjured Serenity maintained less than 1g grav normally, and also on Ezra or else Jayne would have had floor-grid face (similar to keyboardface) for a while after his faceplant in TTJ.

Serenity needs drive to decellerate. In OoG, when they lose drive, they continue at the same velocity they were at when they lost drive power, unable to slow or change direction. Because Wash had them aimed at some vector which kept them away from anybody else, they were "dead in the water" similar to being adrift at sea, not sitting still as anchored.
This would be similar to OMR, except in OMR they're headed somewhere they don't want to go and can't see, and in OoG they're headed farther into vasty nothingness.

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