AGGs on the Galactica

[peter noble]

Let's talk Artificial Gravity Generators.

It's obvious that the Big G has some kind of artificial gravity in place.

Are generators placed throughout the ship at strategic points?

What powers them and how do they work?

Over to you tech-heads. :D

[David Kerin]

I always wondered about these things in numerous scifi series. Battlestar, Star Trek, even Space 1999 seemed to have a rather Earth type gravity on the moonbase. I'd say Buck Rogers as well but they never seemed to care about seeming realistic to any extent.

I would think something in the plating of the floors. Or could there be something along the bottom of the Battlestar? What is that big central core for that runs along the bottom of the ship? Although that would not affect the landing bays, unless there are smaller versions of this gravitational core along the bottom of each bay.

[StarshipTrooper]

*Looks at David's avatar*

Only if Athene does the dressing!

:salute:

[CBSG4ever]

Good question Peter.
I've kinda wondered about that myself as well. This is one of those tricky technical questions that seem to come up in scifi shows. Where's Damocles when you need him. :LOL: Another show to grapple with the AG question was Babylon 5. Earthforce did not have AG but most other races did, in some form or another. Earth ships used rotating sections to simulate gravity as I recall. It wasn't until they allied with the Minbari that they acquired that technology, which I believe were artificial generators of some sort.

I'm leaning towards David's first thought that it's something to do with the deck plating or floors on each deck. Now I'm not very knowledgeable about this sort of thing but this would seem to make sense.
An area generated field along the bottom of the ship/bays could pose some problems. Null-G areas might be an issue. This would not be good, especially on a "carrier" type of ship. Wouldn't want things floating around...like fighters. :eek:

Speaking of floating around. In the Ep "Fire in Space", Starbuck and Apollo are floating around on the outside of the ship placing charges. They use the magnetic charges to get around. If the Colonials used an area generated field on their ships, wouldn't they have been able to walk on the outside of the "Big G"? Just a thought.

Also, just thought of this. Did the Vipers have AG on board?
Just my .02 cubits :salute:

[David Kerin]

Interesting thought about the Fire in Space episode. If there was a general gravity generator, such as the central core, you would think it would affect the exterior surface. It would be somewhat a gravitational field.

Now if it was part of the floor plating, then that would keep it interior. Maybe it has a limited field, thus it needs to be on every level. That way it would also be enough to keep other objects where they should be, such as books on tables, helmets on the shelves in the pilot quarters. Of course it is just because it was that way because it was shot on a soundstage on Earth, but it is more fun to try and figure out a reason. Lord knows I've had that thought pass through my mind at various times over the past 30 years.

[CBSG4ever]

My thinking exactly David. Gravity plating for each deck, or even a couple of decks, might be the case. Perhaps it could be tied into the Life Support system setup somehow?

[gmd3d]

OK the Boots .. very thick soles .. Magnets .. Got to be :) All that metal .... Lasers are a plastic composite and have no metal parts .


"Runs FOR THE HATCH"

But I like the Gravity for each deck angle

[CBSG4ever]

OK the Boots .. very thick soles .. Magnets .. Got to be :) All that metal .... Lasers are a plastic composite and have no metal parts .


"Runs FOR THE HATCH"

But I like the Gravity for each deck angle

:LOL: I though of that for a centon as well T! :D :duck:

[David Kerin]

But if magnetic boots, everything else would float. Got to be some sort of gravitational field. Enough to effect all the materials on the ship, but not large enough to reach outside the battlestar.

Gravity for each deck would be some cool story possibilities. To stop a mutiny or attack inside the battlestar they can disable a deck's gravitational field. Wasn't that done is a show somewhere?

[CBSG4ever]

But if magnetic boots, everything else would float. Got to be some sort of gravitational field. Enough to effect all the materials on the ship, but not large enough to reach outside the battlestar.

Gravity for each deck would be some cool story possibilities. To stop a mutiny or attack inside the battlestar they can disable a deck's gravitational field. Wasn't that done is a show somewhere?

Just kidding about the boots...:D :duck:

Gravity for each deck does seem to be the most plausible based on what we've seen. Stopping a boarding party could be an interesting plot device. Wondering why that wasn't used to stop Baltar's Escape when he & the Nomen were running to the Galacticas' bridge? Rapid surprise perhaps?

If memory serves, Star Trek: Enterprise had an ep about this in season 4. I believe it was entitled "A Mirror, Darkly". Archer used the deck plating to increase the G's to crush a Gorn that was on board the stolen U.S.S. Defiant (Constitution Class). Was that what you were thinking of David?

[David Kerin]

I think that was it! Instead of turning off, they increased the gravitational field (loved that episode by the way. Brilliant to tie into the Tholian Web episode of TOS). That would also tie into story ideas of other alien races who may come from a lighter or heavier gravity environment. I remember Babylon 5 addressed that in the Pilot episode with the Alien Sector, saying that the rotation of certain areas could be adjusted for various gravity needs.

Wow... why is it I can remember things like that (and Buck Rogers episode titles) but geometry and years of history classes have vanished to the dark corners of memory?

[Darrell Lawrence]

ST: First Contact (the movie, not the ep) had them walking around outside with mag-boots. So... how did the Borg stay standing?

I can't recall for sure, but I am sure TNG stated in an ep about the gravity controls.

[CBSG4ever]

ST: First Contact (the movie, not the ep) had them walking around outside with mag-boots. So... how did the Borg stay standing?

I can't recall for sure, but I am sure TNG stated in an ep about the gravity controls.
Yeah...now that you mention it. Never occurred to me. My guess is that, as cybernetic organisms, they might have a device or something already integrated into their implants for such a need whereas regular humans have to invent a device or tool to assist us. Just a thought.

About the TNG gravity controls, probably but can't be sure either. Trying to dust off the cobwebs on those memory files. Not having very much luck. :LOL:

[Damocles]

Gravity is a spatial phenomenon, as much as I understand it, that is it is a property of MASS.

The faster you accelerate, the more you mass. That thus is the difference between acceleration and gravitation is NULL.

So you have to factor that into the almost mythic boson that is the graviton.

It is a charge 2 particle so we have no way to electromagnetically grab and manipulate it. We need half or fraction charge particles to do that.

Hull plating is OUT. A deck-studded with hyper masses would have too much inertia to move, and would collapse into itself, until it formed a spinning sphere.

The best explanation is a graviton manipulator device, that somehow uses spatial shape to focus what few gravitons there are between you and the binding object to create a magnified tractor force. Whether we can find such a lensing effect that will work on a tractor as opposed to light [electromagnetism] which is a tractor/repulsor force, I don't know. If we do find such a technology, it would either be a gravity keel, or polarizer, and would work nothing like what we assume. We would find that it would require us to high step into "gravity wells" of limited depth. If it did work as we understand gravity to work by the Standard Model; then it would be like high-stepping and wading into syrup.

D.