Gravity Onboard

POSTED BY: iwasafrycook
UPDATED: Wednesday, May 24, 2006 16:52
VIEWED: 3086
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So I was watching Out of Gas with my dad the other day, and Mal's stumbling around in that cute, "I've got a gaping stomach wound" way of his, and there's no engines, air, heat, etc.

All of a sudden, my dad asked me, "Where's the gravity coming from?"

Assuming the gravity is generated, wouldn't it kick off when the power fails? I mean, if there's not enough power for air, why waste the power running the gravity? If there is power for gravity, wouldn't there be some way to run it to the life support systems instead of the grav generators?

Thinking about this, I've developed the following theory: Serenity's gravity is physical. By that I mean that basically all the physical weight for Serenity is located on the very bottom of the ship. In space, the greater mass located under the floors of the ship would attract the lesser masses of the people/cargo on the ship towards the floor. So water, fuel (when they have fuel, thank you very much Bush), and metal ballast line the bottom of the ship. This would reconcile both the power failure and Kaylee's comment in The Message about switching from ship's gravity to planetary gravity -- in one moment, the greater source of mass is coming not from the bottom of the ship but from the planet that is at a angle to the ship.

Just a theory I wanted to share.

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The source of gravity was coming from Serenitys battery bank. Its what kept the lights and med lab equipment going while the ships engine and back-up systems were down.Its what also powered the view monitor Mal used to talk to the salvage ship.

Z

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Yeah, they never said they lost power. They said that both primary and backup life support was non-functioning. As in broken. Doesn't matter if you've got power if a thing don't work. The grav system was still working. Since you can have gravity systems in shuttles and antigrav on something as simple as the hover-mule or even in a chandelier, the gravity system must not be tied to the main drive. It just needs a battery.

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Yeah, I would assume that every kind of vessel in the verse has some kind of solar power collector that would allow the gathering and storage of any solar energy from any sun the craft may be floating near by.

This would allow the conservation of precious fuel needed to run the engine and generate power for other needs on the ship. Have you looked at the price of fuel at your local Alliance gas pump lately ? They are out of this world literally...ha..ha

Anyway,battery power would be good only for so long and depending on the vessel type some may last just for a short period of time. In OOG Mal had gotten Wash to take the ship on a leisurely course away from any thing and any one.Nothing around to regenerate battery power. Wash does say something about this(being in the middle of no&where) when Mal ask him about sending out a distress call. Everything did work out,but you already know that.

Z

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Maybe the gravity drive only requires power when the system is powering up or changing output. Maybe the gravity system will run from the solar panels.

You'd need super massive matter (like matter from a neutron star) in order to do it physically, and you'd have no real way of controlling the gravity output of the ship (think of the scene in Serenity when the Gravity is turned on in the cargo bay).

Quote:

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Originally posted by ZZETTA13:
Yeah, I would assume that every kind of vessel in the verse has some kind of solar power collector that would allow the gathering and storage of any solar energy from any sun the craft may be floating near by.

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There's only one sun that ships go near the 'Verse .

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More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
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Quote:

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Originally posted by iwasafrycook:
So I was watching Out of Gas with my dad the other day, and Mal's stumbling around in that cute, "I've got a gaping stomach wound" way of his, and there's no engines, air, heat, etc.

All of a sudden, my dad asked me, "Where's the gravity coming from?"

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As has been said, the gravity is coming from the same place as the lights, and the beacon, and the communications, and the little sled-type things that the shuttles ride out on before they launch, and the ... and so on. Serenity has more power than she knows what to do with, think about the annoying, "Life support failure, check oxygen levels at once," voice, whe do you think it came from? Came from the power, the same power that made the gravity.

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According to the Role Playing Game, while establishing or cancelling an artificial Grav field takes a certain amount of power, once one is established it's fairly low-rent to maintain it. In fact, if you don't deliberately suppress it, it can take a Grav field hours to "relax" even if power is cut off.

Of course, the RPG isn't necessarily cannon, but in the absence of on-screen data, I find it a reasonable source of technical info.

"She's tore up plenty. But she'll fly true." -- Zoë Washburn

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Quote:

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Originally posted by zzetta13:
Yeah, I would assume that every kind of vessel in the verse has some kind of solar power collector that would allow the gathering and storage of any solar energy from any sun the craft may be floating near by.

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Now that you mention it I have seen what look like solar panels on Serenity. I'm not sure what they are used for, if at all.

JOSSIS(Most Definitely)AGOD

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