Artificial Gravity is a stable onboard most space faring vessels, it being key to maintaining life onboard them in the hostile environment that is the vacuum of space. Gravity generators are so common onboard personal, commercial and military star ships it is often taken for granted how complex they actually are in how they function in generating the feeling of being planetside.
Functionality
Gravity generators, as the name suggests, generate gravity. They create an artificial layer of gravity to simulate planetary conditions. Essentially the gravity generator decides which direction is 'down' onboard the ship, making everything onboard it sufficiently heavier to create the necessary conditions of gravity. Most gravity generators are adjustable and can be fine tuned to simulate a specific planet's gravity conditions in a similar way how life support systems control air composition and humidity.
Gravity generators are a part of a ship's life support system and are essential for maintaining life. Without a gravity generator those onboard a star ship for too long may experience negative effects such as muscle atrophy.
There are two primary types of gravity generator, more common Type One generators that are fitted in most ships and the bigger, more powerful Type Two generators, commonly fitted to stations and much larger structures.
Type One generators attach to the hull of a star ship directly to establish a light electrical current all around the ship. If the ship is made of a conductive material, the generator will simply hook onto a point on the hull. Ships made of non conductive materials, particularly military vessels, have a complex network of cables that carry the generators current around the ship. After this, the generator turns the light electrical current into a gravitonic field, thus keeping objects within the ship attached to the floor. Some more complex ship designs use gravitonic shifters that in some parts of the ship to alter the directional pull of the gravity in specific areas, allowing them to make better use of space, or even choosing to keep some areas of the ship in permanent zero gravity. Though in the vast majority of generator designs, shifting gravity generators such as these cost much more power to effectively operate, and are greater prone to malfunction, on top of all that, requiring a complex cable network to carry their electrical current.
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Alternate Uses
A notable use of shifting gravity was in the early galactic war with
The Sirasion Empire and
Galactic Alliance , where the Sirasions would attempt to board Alliance ships. In the beginning, this tactic was extremely effective, with Alliance crew being unable to stand up to the Sirasion's advanced battlesuits and fire power. The solution came when one Alliance commander opted to set up entrenched positions within his ship with the soldiers securing electro magnets from a disassembled railgun to their boots to keep them in place, then turning off the artificial gravity when the Sirasions came into view. While the soldiers remained stationary on the ground, the Sirasions bounced around the corridors and were picked off with ease. This tactic later evolved into having gravity 'traps' onboard certain parts of the ship, where specific corridors could have their gravity 'reversed' and turned up, thus sticking the Sirasions to the ceiling, allowing them to be picked off or easily captured. It is highly hypothesized that the Alliance's mastery of artificial gravity lead to the Sirasions abandoned boarding attacks almost all together.
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Type One gravity generators are completely in control of the orientation of the ships gravity, even when on approach to a planet. The standard practise when approaching a planet for landing is to re-orient ones ship to that of the planet so the ship doesn't come in upside down. However for ships that stay in space, this isn't always the case, there for it is a common sight to see freighters and other ships docked on 360 degree orientation stations 'upside down'. While the ship may be upside down, it has its own gravitonic orientation separate to the planet so the crew will still be attached to the floor inside their ship.
This only changes once ships enter the upper atmosphere of a planet, where the planets gravitonic pull interferes with the gravity generator. In this case, the generator can activate an external device that resembles a radar dish. This device effectively latches onto the planet's gravity field and there for takes on the orientation. For example; the ship's desired gravity value is
100, the planets gravity is a value of
50. The gravity generator will then only have to exert its power to a value of
50 to keep the desired gravity field on the ship. On a planet where the gravity is very low, the generator has to work harder, while on a planet which's gravity field is stronger than average the generator may not even have to work at all. However, if a planet has an intensely high gravity, most standard gravity generators are unable to 'reduce' gravity. As the pull gets stronger the closer the ship gets to the lower atmosphere, the gravity generator adjusts accordingly.
The Illusion of Horizontal Fighting and Global Orientation
All of this means that when military ships are having to fight over a planet will often adjust to the planets orientation to save power. from their gravity generator and divert it elsewhere, like weapons, engines or shields, Giving the illusion that space battles are fought on a horizontal plane, when in actual fact this is only the case when fighting close to or in atmosphere. Alternatively, many ships have landing thrusters on the bottom of the hull so they are able to touch down in drydock safely. These same thrusters or repulserlifts are also responsible for keeping the ship aloft when it is under the effect of a planet's gravity. Meaning if it were to try and turn over it's bottom thrusters wouldn't keep it from falling to the ground.
This means that when fighting in or close to a planet's atmosphere the ships are tied to the planets orientation, meaning fights often will take place on a horizontal plane unless one side has the height advantage, something that would be overlooked in space as both ships can effortlessly turn toward one another, in atmosphere, where gravity is a factor, this is not always so easy.
When fighting in the lower atmosphere where the planet's gravity is in full effect, larger ships can take full advantage of their powerful thrusters. Ship to ship combat in lower atmosphere is similar visually to a dance between giants, with both ships attempting to get a better angle of attack on the other.
On the other hand, sometimes ships will fight in the orbit of a planet. What this means is the ships adopt the gravitonic orbit and are essentially circling the planet. In this case, many ships will opt to turn of their ACS thrusters let the orbit take them around the planet, though this is optional, but saves valuable power. Ships engaged in a true orbital battle with their ACS turned off will, to the outside observer, be moving incredibly fast around the planet, while to those in the battle will not be moving at all aside from their manoeuvres against the enemy. This method is not always the most tactically viable if trying to hold a hyperlane, as the hyperlane exit location stays where it is, while the orbit is constantly rotating around the planet. It is common for space stations to be set in a planets orbit, as they can hang there without any thrusters or repulserlifts to keep them aloft and from drifting away into deep space. Some stations, most notably hyperlane checkpoints, operate independently of a planet's gravity, using complex GPS (Galactic Positioning Systems) to keep them in place.
The levels of space can be broken down into several tiers;
Void - space faring in deep space / out of a planets gravity. Ships orientation is dependant on the set up of the gravity generator
Orbital - Space faring in a planets orbit, here the ships orientation is still tied to the gravity generator, but the ship is under the effect of the planets gravitational orbital pull
Upper Atmosphere - Ships are under the affect of a planets gravity and without downward thrusters will sink gradually. Here they often take on the planet's orientation
Lower Atmosphere - Gravity generators are switched off and the planets gravity is used.
Type Two Generators
Type two generators are mostly reserved for larger stations. These generators are positioned usually within the center point of the structure, if not, that area where the type two generator is positioned will become the center point. Type two gravity generators are designed to create an area of extremely high mass, mimicking the center of a planet. There for the generator pulls all things towards it from any direction. For example, if the station as a sphere shape, someone standing on the 'bottom' would be stuck to the surface just as much as someone standing on the 'top' of the structure. The Type Two generator generates a field from itself rather than a complex network of cables and wires, there for its power output must be carefully managed as to not extend too far outside the reach of the station
These generators are used almost exclusively within structures permanently set in space. Their design is much simpler than the type one generator and maintenance is much easier. However, the difficulty comes in when managing a type two generator in conjunction to a natural gravity field, should the station be positioned in the upper atmosphere of a planet rather than its orbit or deep space, as the part of the generator creating gravity on the bottom of the station (in regards to the planet's orientation) will have to work harder than the top part. Some type two generators are equipped with the necessary power management to make adjustments for these changes.
Natural Gravity
Gravity generators are expensive to produce and to purchase, they are also costly to maintain and require significant expertise. However not all space structures require their presence. Some structures can generate natural gravity by constantly spinning at a certain speed. Often it is easy to spot stations that function in this way due to a rounded, ring like or entirely symmetrical design. Stations that use a natural gravity field are often powered by thrusters that keep the station moving at the correct speed to simulate the desired gravity. Having a station built for this is by far the cheapest and easiest way to generate gravity. However, due to the physics behind this method, structures like this have to be colossal in size. More often that not being strictly reserved for deep space.
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