Artificial Gravity - Impervious to Battle Damage?

[Matthew486DX]

So I got thinking... I think all through out Stargate, we've seen various ships, lose every type of system there is, life support, communications, sublight, hyperdrive, power, etc EXCEPT,

No one has ever lost Artificial Gravity (or inertial dampeners). ;p

Even in 'Ghost in the Machine' ...

Spoiler:

when the Puddle Jumper gets all whacked, they have NOTHING except artificial gravity and inertial dampeners, the latter being mentioned by McKay

McKAY: OK, good, good. I was wrong. We still have power; we're just not getting any to the primary systems ... or the secondary systems either.

SHEPPARD: Why not?

McKAY: I don't know. It's some kind of interference. I'm getting spikes all over the place. It's completely haywire. Thank God the inertial dampeners weren't affected.

SHEPPARD: Well, not yet.

I'm sure the dampeners bit is artistic license, because without that they'd be dead. However...

To lose artificial gravity, that would make an interesting scene, IMHO.

[Sealurk]

Maybe there's some kind of residual effect, or maybe the artificial gravity/inertial dampener systems have batteries built in that can sustain the necessary effects for some time.

Maybe it's just a really robust system - hyperdrive fails if you so much as sneeze near it, but then hyperdrive failing is more of an inconvenience rather than a lethal event (most of the time). Inertial dampeners / artificial gravity (probably same system) are likely to be much more important because of that whole "acceleration that turns people into goo" thing.

[Serenity000]

Maybe artificial gravity and life support are so important that, like in say a puddle jumper, there are multiple redundancies so they never fail.

[knowles2]

Yeah loosing the artificical gravity would make a scene interesting but it would also make the scene expensive and time consuming to do. An that why they avoid failure of the gravity systems at all cost.

As to the in the in universe theory , perhaps they use something like gravity plating which take times to loose gravity field they create.

[Sealurk]

The only time I can remember them doing a microgravity scene is with McKay, Grodin and the other guy on the Ancient weapon station. No power, no gravity, but abandoned for a long time. Maybe whatever it is 'holds' a charge for some time, and just needs topping up every now and then.

Or, as Serenity suggested, it has massive redundancy. It's a surprisingly important system - if weapons go down, you run. If engines go down, you wait for help. Life support might lose power but people can still breathe the air in the ship, although it will become more and more stale with time.

But, if you lose inertial dampening, the crew suddenly become incredibly vulnerable to the ship being shunted by the blast from a powerful weapon, or sudden acceleration, or a rough re-entry. Probably hard to do your job when you're nursing severe bruising, a concussion, broken bones or have suddenly been reduced to a red splatter on the rear bulkhead because Odyssey accelerated at a hundred gees.

As for artificial gravity, well, it's a lot easier to work in one gee than zero gee. And it's probably the same system anyway.

[thekillman]

maybe the system suffers from self-induction of some kind.

an electro magnet can not be shut down in 1 second. when the power is cut, the huge magnetic flux causes self-induction, which again generates a magnetic field, which generates flux which causes self induction, so the effect gradually weakens. with energies normal in Stargate, such flux would be high enough to have the system still active for some time.


a little test: whenever i pull the plug on the "normal" computer, the light of the monitor remains on for about 5 seconds before it goes off. due to self induction. the electricity does not go away immediately. in a city like atlantis, pulling the ZPM should keep the piers lit up for perhaps a minute before it dies.

[jds1982]

Perhaps the AG systems work by creating gravitons, which "produce" gravity. It could explain why the AG seems to never fail, because the gravitons take a while to dissipate

[Kirk Kent]

I agree that it could be any or all of the above suggestions. From multiple redundancy through to Gravity Plating.

My feeling is it all falls back to two little words

"Plot" "Device" :-)

[Guest750]

Two more words: "Nuh" "Huh". If it's a "Plot device" then how come it's never effected "the plot"?

[Lord Pink]

Maybe artificial gravity and life support are so important that, like in say a puddle jumper, there are multiple redundancies so they never fail.

Life support can fail more easily than the artificial gravity.

[a6346]

Is it possible that the plating is made from a substance that replicates gravity without it needing power. As a naturally dense enough substance that can simulate gravity, which can be made stronger or weaker on the thickness of the material. Its theorised that dark matter is extremly dense and a single particle has an emmense gravity well emmiting from it.

Therefore it would not go offline. Unfortunatly You would probably be torn apart between the deck plating of the deck your on and the one above you Only though of that as I wrote it.

[K^2]

Life support can fail more easily than the artificial gravity.

Artificial Gravity IS the most important part of life support. Human body can survive even without oxygen for some time. If inertial dampeners go during a maneuver, death is instantaneous. You do not want these systems to fail, even when everything else goes.

[thekillman]

Is it possible that the plating is made from a substance that replicates gravity without it needing power. As a naturally dense enough substance that can simulate gravity, which can be made stronger or weaker on the thickness of the material. Its theorised that dark matter is extremly dense and a single particle has an emmense gravity well emmiting from it.

you wont be torn between decks, if the artificial gravity is located at the bottom of the ship.


the problem is such density would require immensely powerful engines.

i think that the artificial gravity, gravity being the weakest force of all, is produced by say, 100 stations in groups of 10, each having a naquahdah generator next to it to ensure power

[K^2]

i think that the artificial gravity, gravity being the weakest force of all...

If the energy densities needed for inertial dampening are a fraction of what you'd need from General Relativity... This is where the bulk of your power should be going, especially when you consider something like the 302s.

There was one episode of Atlantis where they were flying a jumper with no dampeners, but that was near planetary surface, so there was plenty of good old natural-made gravity.