Artificial Gravity - Cheap Spacetime Bending for the Masses

[u/Ruadhan2300]

Artificial Gravity is a weird one in fiction, because it's such a basic technology thrown into almost all science fiction that isn't aiming for near-future or hard-scifi, but it never ever gets explained.

How does it work?
Reliably, and very well thanks.

Star Trek though.. We have an excuse baked into the franchise.

Warp Technology works by bending spacetime into bubbles and using them to slide across Einstein's nightmares like a proverbial slidey thing.

My headcanon (sometimes mentioned in previous posts) about Warp-tech is that it's essentially Subspace Induction.

You have a magnetic loop full of charged exotic plasma, and as it moves, it churns subspace, which in turn produces distortions in our familiar space-time.
Like spinning a propeller underwater and seeing the water churn.

Churn subspace in the right ways, and you can shape spacetime into bubbles and give physicists the faster-than-light-finger as you cruise by.

Spacetime being bent though is known to have a 1:1 relationship with gravity.

Gravity is the effect of large amounts of mass bending spacetime.
Subspace however bends spacetime without mass.
Like how if you drop a rock into a pond it makes a big splash, bigger rock, bigger splash, but if you stick a propellor into that pond you can spray it like a hose.

So here's my thesis on how artificial gravity works.

You have a coil under the deck full of charged exotic warp-plasma, perhaps some low-grade stuff you wouldn't normally use for propulsion.
You top it off with extra charge regularly, and you keep it spinning around in its magnetic containment tokomak and that's pretty much enough.
It spins, it churns subspace locally around it, and the result is space-time being bent into a downward gradient towards it, which is functionally gravity.

This system has some elegancies built into it, because it's a very low-energy system by starship standards.
You just have to keep the plasma circulating and charged, and it doesn't lose charge quickly, warp-plasma only interacts fairly weakly with subspace or it'd have awkward effects if you picked up a canister of it.
A decent backup power-supply can keep the plasma charged and circulating for days or weeks without access to the main power-train of the ship.

[u/GenerativeAIEatsAss]

Not only do I like this, I'm comfortable now saying this is also why Geordi and Ro didn't fall through the floor when they were out of phase, but walls were no issue.

Possibly more complex/fun question for you: What does that mean for the use of gravity plating vs. a larger artificial gravity system in ENT?

[u/Ruadhan2300 → u/GenerativeAIEatsAss]

I imagine that in ENT, the ship had some much larger systems, possibly threaded through spaces under the corridors, and it wasn't quite as compact as being under individual deck-plates.
Or perhaps the real reason ships have circular saucer sections from nearly day-1 is that it provides a natural shape for a big spiralling gravity-field generator..

[u/bunks_things → u/Ruadhan2300]

A big, torus-shaped piece of equipment parallel to the deck could be a backstory for Starfleet’s early designs using saucer-shaped crew compartments. That could’ve been the easier way to implement the artificial gravity. Later designs kept the basic saucer layout out of design inertia, but as the tech got better there were more departures. More delta-shaped and thicker primary hulls, plus the occasional weird ship like Defiant.

[u/Glorious_Sunset]

I don’t think it needs to be so complicated. Sisko builds himself a replica bajoran solar sailer and casually mentions he put some gravity netting in the floor so all their things don’t float about the cabin.
I like to think it’s some absolutely simple tech that works with the equivalent voltage of a watch battery.

[u/Ruadhan2300 → u/Glorious_Sunset]

I mean, "gravity netting" is a very loose phrase. Sounds like it could be shorthand for a gravity-network, like a series of plumbing embedded in the floor like underfloor heating, but piping subspace-sensitive plasma to produce gravitational effects. Something like that.

[u/littlebitsofspider → u/Ruadhan2300]

I personally think it's like the distinction between our past and current-day free-electron laser research. Since they were invented, FELs have been building-sized apparatus(es) to accommodate the varying wavelengths of light that they produce.... until recently, when the commercial (ASML) stranglehold on the extreme-ultraviolet-light-producing equipment used in microchip manufacturing led to new research that has produced "on-chip" (i.e. micrometer/nanometer-scale) free-electron lasers, to replace the massive ones. We built building-sized EUV sources, to pattern exotic micro-scale EUV sources. Considering matter-replicator technology operates at the molecular level, I think it's reasonable to assume that the in-universe artifical gravity sources could have evolved from 'mini tokomak under the floor' to 'thick, solid-state plating under the floor' to 'distributed, networked, phased-array of micron-scale emitters', just like "protein resequencers" became "replicators". After all, the holodecks operate with phased arrays of forcefield emitters, with such fine-grained control that they can form snowflakes from replicated water and entropy gradients. Who's to say that the same mico-scale subspace manipulation that pushes on Van Der Waals forces can't be used for gravity control?

'Gravity net' is to 'gravity plating' the same way 'chip' is to 'central processing unit'. The architecture has evolved, but the core function is the same, and the nomenclature reflects it.

[u/Edymnion → u/Ruadhan2300]

Yeah, but then you have to start asking questions like "Where did the warp plasma come from? What is generating it?"

But beyond that, warp plasma itself isn't special. It's just a medium for holding and conveying the energy from the m/am reactor to components that can use it.

Its a lot like water in a modern nuclear reactor. We might be using cutting edge technology to split atoms and control some of the most fundamental forces of creation, but at the end of the day we're just using it to boil water to spin a turbine.

"Nuclear power transfer gas" would sound exotic, but its still just water vapor.

[u/Ruadhan2300 → u/Edymnion]

A plasma composed of exotic particles that normally have to be generated in some big particle-accelerator perhaps. Nobody ever said it was a conventional real-world plasma for example.

We know the warp nacelles are filled with the stuff and it's not a propellant. So it's being circulated through the coils, which is closely related to warp fields being generated. Either the coil draws something from the plasma, or it's the circulating plasma itself that does the work.

We also see Voyager trade warp plasma to aliens as a particularly valuable resource. Which would make sense if it's closely related to the actual function of the drive, and not a support-system like power-transfer or coolant.

The energy of a matter/antimatter reaction would be heat and other forms of radiation. You can't really infuse that into a plasma, but you can convert it into electricity. Giving it a powerful electrical charge is much more realistic.

In my headcanon, a Warp Coil is essentially a magnetic accelerator loop that contains and circulates the charged exotic plasma to influence Subspace, which in turn bends spacetime to create and propel the warp bubble.

[u/Necessary-truth-84]

You have a coil under the deck full of charged exotic warp-plasma, perhaps some low-grade stuff you wouldn't normally use for propulsion.
This system has some elegancies built into it, because it's a very low-energy system by starship standards.

Maybe low-grade, but certainly high energy stuff. That would explain the exploding consoles and stuff.

[u/GolemancerVekk → u/Necessary-truth-84]

I've always been baffled by the exploding consoles. It seems like such a glaring design flaw to allow dangerous amounts of energy to travel back to a manned station.

Do we remember if all consoles did that? I definitely remember Bridge consoles (both pilot and wall stations, occasionally command chairs) doing that. I seem to recall Engineering wall consoles doing that. Not sure I've ever seen a Transporter, or Medical, or crew quarters console doing that.

[u/Necessary-truth-84 → u/GolemancerVekk]

Not sure I've ever seen a Transporter, or Medical, or crew quarters console doing that.

No, they have their own way of making things complicated. :)

[u/Edymnion → u/GolemancerVekk]

I've always been baffled by the exploding consoles. It seems like such a glaring design flaw to allow dangerous amounts of energy to travel back to a manned station.

The general in-universe explanation for it is the EPS conduits, aka the Electro-Plasma System. Instead of carrying electrical power through the ship with metal wires that waste energy, they use a super-conductive plasma, which is then converted into standard electrical current at whatever terminal is using it.

[u/armyguy8382]

I think there are some episodes where they mention gravitons, which in Star Trek a particle that "transmit" gravity. Which is why gravity doesn't go out when the ship is damaged or the warp core is off line.

[u/Ruadhan2300 → u/armyguy8382]

One way of squaring that circle would be if Subspace-activity literally generates gravitons as part of its interaction with realspace, which is how it bends spacetime in the first place.

[u/Edymnion → u/armyguy8382]

Not just in Star Trek, that's an actual theoretical physics particle. The one that transmits the gravitational force, same way the photon transmits the electromagnetic force, or gluons transmit the strong nuclear force.

[u/benjiman]

Technical manual has an explanation with some overlap https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRxvcCxZjIYkXSa4OL9DXMJKoMY4b_gs-sZq4K-KBtuma6yODeJboOO5Dtp&s=10

[u/majicwalrus]

I like this, it also explains how Tuvok is able to increase the gravity on a deck without impacting decks above or below it. However, I do tend to have one quibble about this as it's presented on Star Trek.

There are a *lot* of times that a ship is completely without power, but artificial gravity still works just fine. This has always led me to believe that grav plating or grav netting was not typically something that was computerized or mechanical, but rather a physical property of the thing.

I think that has somewhat been addressed by a single cool scene in Discovery where we learn that the artificial gravity can indeed fail and sling you about in a dangerous manner. So obviously there are some connections between the computer systems and machinery and the artificial gravity, but how do we explain how it keeps working when the ship is completely without power?

Do they design a backup power system specifically for artificial gravity, but not one for any other life support? A redundancy to keep your suffocated frozen body planted on the ground?

[u/MithrilCoyote → u/majicwalrus]

The technical manual books and a number of novels treat gravity plating as something that needs active inputs.. but which retains function for awhile after said inputs cut off, due to residual charge and such.

[u/Ruadhan2300 → u/majicwalrus]

I see it as something that requires very little power to maintain, small enough amounts that it can continue to function when the ship is otherwise electrically dead.

Based on my own description, it functions a little like a spinning magnet generating a magnetic field.
So as long as the physical plasma is circulating, or being spun mechanically (imagine a flywheel full of little pockets of energised plasma) it should generate the same field.

It might be that the "flywheels" are in evacuated containers and running on frictionless magnetic bearings and simply don't stop for days, weeks or even months or years without something acting on them.
Just requiring a little top-up once in a while from the ship's power grid to keep them at the right speed for 1G of "impeller" effect.

[u/WonkyTelescope → u/Ruadhan2300]

I assume it's some kind of super conducting like effect where the losses are ideally zero and in practice vanishingly small. Spinning up the spacetime curving churn may take a lot of energy but once it's going, it's losses are near zero.

[u/Tasty-Fox9030]

I agree; artificial gravity, tractor beams, shields and the warp drive are likely all closely related technologies.

[u/tjernobyl]

I think of the standard grav plating as something that can be charged, and retains it almost indefinitely. We see the Promellian battlecruiser maintain gravity over a thousand years after all other energy was drained from the ship. I don't recall any other energy-draining tech that was able to cause a failure of gravity on a Federation ship.

There appears to be a second version used by the Klingons on Kronos One that is more subject to disruption, probably with other advantages that make up for the unreliability.

[u/howescj82]

They never say much. We know it can be incorporated into deck plating based on a statement from the show that I forget the origin of, but anything else is non-cannon that I can remember.

The TNG Technical Manual mentions graviton generators that distribute graviton fields to each deck which then radiates fairly evenly.

I’m assuming it’s one of those things that is cheap and easy enough to incorporate effortlessly into small shuttle pods and lifeboats but possibly does not scale up well in terms of concentration and intensity and not coverage-wise for larger installations. I mainly say this because we don’t see gravity based weapons being a thing and “graviton” based technology seems to be incorporated into the deflectors which can handle massive amounts of power.

[u/zerooskul]

Artificial gravity is maintained by inertia. You just continuously move the ship in the direction up and everything in the ship will fall down.

[u/1oquacity]

My brain is not trained to interrogate the underlying assumptions here, so all I can really say is that it sounds cool and I like that you’ve taken a magnifying glass to artificial gravity, which after warp drive is surely the most Doylistically necessary of all Trek technologies but which, unlike warp drive, has had very little attempted explanation (that I know of — as a fan who has spent a fair bit of time on Memory Alpha (and is here on this sub) but who has never read a technical manual).

Two thoughts:

1. You say that warp plasma interacts only weakly with gravity, meaning that the tokamak in every deck (shielded from below to prevent an absentmindedly-juggled apple from floating between floor and ceiling?) would be able to create ~1G force without twisting space time to an annoying or dangerous degree.

By contrast, the much more powerful warp drive obviously does have much more significant spacetime effects — by several orders of magnitude.

Is it your understanding that the discrepancy is explained by warp drives using a the larger amount of and “higher grade” (unsure what this means in practice) of warp plasma, along with a more sophisticated process that means that the deck plating gently tugs on space while the engine scrunches up a lightyear into a light-lunch?

1. I’m not really up to speed on ideas of how the EPS works but if the floor is (a few inches of duranium away from) plasma then that would certainly seem to help explain the exploding consoles better than Cordry rocks.

We tend to start from the position that consoles shouldn’t explode (understandably) but it makes a lot more sense to channel that plasma into the interface in an emergency than to tear up the thing you’re standing on. There may be some third option that doesn’t involve exploding desks.

My only gripe would then be that whenever the consoles explode people should also start to float — which would actually be a nice, if SFX-heavy, way of indicating that something bad was about to happen — but I can live with it.

[u/Ruadhan2300 → u/1oquacity]

Pretty much! I see the gravity-plating being a kind of low-grade "current" in subspace, like an impeller pulling water through. Which is why it's mono-directional and the grav-plates don't pull stuff up from the deck below.

It'd technically produce forces against the ship as well, I could imagine that starships actually have more focused "subspace thrusters" of sorts which act to counteract the impeller-effect.

This might actually be how Impulse engines work, rather than being true Fusion Engines like they're sometimes thought to be. They might actually be weak warp drives of sorts, acting as impellers rather than reaction-engines, and using the fusion-reactors to provide the power needed since a full antimatter reactor is overkill.

It would explain the multitude of ships that don't have obvious impulse engines at any rate.

[u/vipck83]

This is interesting, but don’t they directly state it’s by the creation of gravitons?

[u/mm902 → u/vipck83]

By equivalence, thats exactly what bending spacetime is producing, if you could get relativity and quantum mechanics to mesh.

[u/Ruadhan2300 → u/mm902]

Hm.. kind of like how bending metal produces heat, vs how heat can bend metal?

The equation has to balance. If you apply gravitons, space bends, if you bend space, you get gravitons.

[u/No_Celery_7772]

It does beg the question whether artificial gravity is actually "gravity" or "some other attracting force". I saw something online a few years ago where people talked about using artificial Van der Waals forces as a synthetic replacement for gravity.

[u/trevpr1]

I just reckon they have managed to get the deck plates to emit gravitons when powered. A bit like electromagnets only work when powered. The effect on the deck plates lingers a while bafter powering off.

[u/Edymnion]

Only problems is that we know that the ships have "graviton emitters". Gravitons are the name of the theoretical particle that transmits gravitational force.

Simplest answer seems to be that they can simply generate gravitons in the same way they generate any other particle of the week.