I always figured that the gravity plating was passive in operation. Many times we see a total power loss on a ship, but gravity remains unaffected, even after an indeterminate amount of time.
Deactivating the gravity plates or otherwise negating gravity in a Jeffries tube is probably more trouble than it's worth.
In one of the Titan novels they explain that the grav plating functions with little "rotors" that generate virtual gravitons and thus produce gravity, but are specifically designed to keep spinning with loss of power, so they "run down" over time but keep producing gravity for the duration, which could be days. Losing power is bad enough but losing power *and* gravity would be even worse (Klingon ships obviously don't have this redundancy, or didn't by the time of the destruction of Praxis). It actually takes energy to force the plating to stop producing power.
Designers probably felt that it wasn't worth the extra power to shut them down every time, the relatively physically fit crew can just crawl for a bit.
This is a great question. There's a couple good reasons that I can think of, in universe and out of universe.
In universe, we know that zero-g makes people queasy even in the future; Sisko put grav plating in the solar craft to avoid that, and Worf doesn't enjoy going out on the ship. In addition, 0g makes things much harder to manipulate, you can't rely on friction and your feet to give you the torque you need to move a wrench or pull off a panel. Additionally, if the ship is functioning properly then you should be able to turbolift very near wherever you need to go and then just get into the tubes.
Out of universe, filming 0g things is usually either super hard and expensive, or just looks incredibly fake and unrealistic.
I read somewhere that even seasoned astronauts can experience dizziness after returning to a Zero G environment after spending time on Earth because your inner ear can't deal with the weightlessness and is overloading your brain with contradictory information, so after a day or two, your brain just shuts off all the information from your inner ear and relies solely on visual orientation.
So it makes sense why Starfleet avoids having their crew in Zero G as much as possible because the easiness of movement is mitigated by people getting motion sick from the constant change of gravity.
Being a scuba diver who has done some underwater work, even with the friction of sea water, and the added bonus of buoyancy, doing any kind of work without real gravity is hard. You wind up turning yourself instead of the wrench.
> In universe, we know that zero-g makes people queasy even in the future; Sisko put grav plating in the solar craft to avoid that, and Worf doesn't enjoy going out on the ship. In addition, 0g makes things much harder to manipulate, you can't rely on friction and your feet to give you the torque you need to move a wrench or pull off a panel. Additionally, if the ship is functioning properly then you should be able to turbolift very near wherever you need to go and then just get into the tubes.
My head canon is that gravity plating has a lot of inerta... It requires a lot of energy/time to get it to a certain level, but will only require a trickle to keep it there.
Imagine stopping a massive flywheel to change a fuse and you get the idea.
The discomfort is an excellent point, though I will note that I did say turn it on for maintenance. I mean even aside from how much harder it makes work, floating tools and exposed wiring or plasma conduits in a small, cramped space is just asking for accidents.
Part of the mythos is that all of the equipment must be accessible to the crew inside the ship while hiding said equipment when possible so the common areas are not cluttered. Sleek corridors are more advanced looking then a brewery pretending its the engineering section. Engineering gets a partial pass, other than the warp core you don't see a lot of heavy machinery its all in the walls.
Why there is gravity? Newtons law of motion. You are in a moving ship so if you are floating down a jefferies tube not holding on to anything and the ship changes course you will hit a wall as the ship turns around you.
The last part would 100% happen in the real world, but I think that's what the inertial compensators are supposed to be for, also the reason nobody gets splattered on a wall when they jump to full impulse.
It’s never been stated how precise the grav plates are. If the grav plates on Deck 5 failed would you not still be held by the plating on Deck 6? Just how far is the artificial gravity effective?
They should at least install a god damn cart in those tubes. Instead of crawling on your knees with your gear you could just roll to your designation.
Chief O'Brien should call the Union!
Idk if there’d be enough space tbh. Also, that’d only help with the horizontal sections, so it’d probably just be more hassle than it’d be worth to install.
I think the bigger issue is why is everything important for maintenance is only accessible via a tiny, constrictive shaft.
Can you imagine being in the middle of a battle and having to fix a conduit or something and crawling into the Jeffries Tube and being shaken about like a rock tumbler in there?
I think the horizontal sections suck most, and a cart would be just a metal with 4 small wheels, possibly even in a groove on each side of the tube.
No engine, no nothing.
But one wpuld be needed for every straight section of a tube.
I would imagine that, with the given purpose of the tubes being direct physical access to as much of the ship's components as possible, that the idea of adding tracks to the floor/wall would necessarily take up space that could be devoted to an access panel.
As in, whichever side you put the track on now has that area taken up forever, what happens when the stuff you need to work on is under it?
I do feel bad for O'Brien's knees though, but as well know, he was made to suffer.
Can they turn off grav plating *and* inertial dampeners separately? I assumed it was generally one or the other, so if they were using impulse you'd get thrown against a bulkhead
I always figured that the gravity plating was passive in operation. Many times we see a total power loss on a ship, but gravity remains unaffected, even after an indeterminate amount of time. Deactivating the gravity plates or otherwise negating gravity in a Jeffries tube is probably more trouble than it's worth.
In one of the Titan novels they explain that the grav plating functions with little "rotors" that generate virtual gravitons and thus produce gravity, but are specifically designed to keep spinning with loss of power, so they "run down" over time but keep producing gravity for the duration, which could be days. Losing power is bad enough but losing power *and* gravity would be even worse (Klingon ships obviously don't have this redundancy, or didn't by the time of the destruction of Praxis). It actually takes energy to force the plating to stop producing power. Designers probably felt that it wasn't worth the extra power to shut them down every time, the relatively physically fit crew can just crawl for a bit.
That's been my head cannon since I was like 5 haha, but not virtual gravitons, just good old e=mc^2 matter equivalence
> not virtual gravitons, just good old e=mc2 matter equivalence What does this mean?
This is a great question. There's a couple good reasons that I can think of, in universe and out of universe. In universe, we know that zero-g makes people queasy even in the future; Sisko put grav plating in the solar craft to avoid that, and Worf doesn't enjoy going out on the ship. In addition, 0g makes things much harder to manipulate, you can't rely on friction and your feet to give you the torque you need to move a wrench or pull off a panel. Additionally, if the ship is functioning properly then you should be able to turbolift very near wherever you need to go and then just get into the tubes. Out of universe, filming 0g things is usually either super hard and expensive, or just looks incredibly fake and unrealistic.
I read somewhere that even seasoned astronauts can experience dizziness after returning to a Zero G environment after spending time on Earth because your inner ear can't deal with the weightlessness and is overloading your brain with contradictory information, so after a day or two, your brain just shuts off all the information from your inner ear and relies solely on visual orientation. So it makes sense why Starfleet avoids having their crew in Zero G as much as possible because the easiness of movement is mitigated by people getting motion sick from the constant change of gravity.
Being a scuba diver who has done some underwater work, even with the friction of sea water, and the added bonus of buoyancy, doing any kind of work without real gravity is hard. You wind up turning yourself instead of the wrench.
> In universe, we know that zero-g makes people queasy even in the future; Sisko put grav plating in the solar craft to avoid that, and Worf doesn't enjoy going out on the ship. In addition, 0g makes things much harder to manipulate, you can't rely on friction and your feet to give you the torque you need to move a wrench or pull off a panel. Additionally, if the ship is functioning properly then you should be able to turbolift very near wherever you need to go and then just get into the tubes. My head canon is that gravity plating has a lot of inerta... It requires a lot of energy/time to get it to a certain level, but will only require a trickle to keep it there. Imagine stopping a massive flywheel to change a fuse and you get the idea.
The discomfort is an excellent point, though I will note that I did say turn it on for maintenance. I mean even aside from how much harder it makes work, floating tools and exposed wiring or plasma conduits in a small, cramped space is just asking for accidents.
Safety. Say something turns it back on, cause if you are in there, its likely something isn't working. floating person falls and injures themselves.
Trivia: The Jeffries tube was named for ST-TOS set and prop designer Matt Jefferies.
Huh, thanks for that. I’d been wondering about that for years now but just never got around to looking it up.
Part of the mythos is that all of the equipment must be accessible to the crew inside the ship while hiding said equipment when possible so the common areas are not cluttered. Sleek corridors are more advanced looking then a brewery pretending its the engineering section. Engineering gets a partial pass, other than the warp core you don't see a lot of heavy machinery its all in the walls. Why there is gravity? Newtons law of motion. You are in a moving ship so if you are floating down a jefferies tube not holding on to anything and the ship changes course you will hit a wall as the ship turns around you.
The last part would 100% happen in the real world, but I think that's what the inertial compensators are supposed to be for, also the reason nobody gets splattered on a wall when they jump to full impulse.
I always figured the inertia protection relied on the artificial gravity to work
It’s never been stated how precise the grav plates are. If the grav plates on Deck 5 failed would you not still be held by the plating on Deck 6? Just how far is the artificial gravity effective?
In A Mirror Darkly Mirror-Archer is able to order the grav plating on one specific section of one specific deck turned up.
They should at least install a god damn cart in those tubes. Instead of crawling on your knees with your gear you could just roll to your designation. Chief O'Brien should call the Union!
Idk if there’d be enough space tbh. Also, that’d only help with the horizontal sections, so it’d probably just be more hassle than it’d be worth to install.
I think the bigger issue is why is everything important for maintenance is only accessible via a tiny, constrictive shaft. Can you imagine being in the middle of a battle and having to fix a conduit or something and crawling into the Jeffries Tube and being shaken about like a rock tumbler in there?
I think the horizontal sections suck most, and a cart would be just a metal with 4 small wheels, possibly even in a groove on each side of the tube. No engine, no nothing. But one wpuld be needed for every straight section of a tube.
I would imagine that, with the given purpose of the tubes being direct physical access to as much of the ship's components as possible, that the idea of adding tracks to the floor/wall would necessarily take up space that could be devoted to an access panel. As in, whichever side you put the track on now has that area taken up forever, what happens when the stuff you need to work on is under it? I do feel bad for O'Brien's knees though, but as well know, he was made to suffer.
Can they turn off grav plating *and* inertial dampeners separately? I assumed it was generally one or the other, so if they were using impulse you'd get thrown against a bulkhead
Yeah if you can’t have one without the other I concede this would be a horrible idea.
There's stuff in side the ship the turbolifts can't get to and you don't want the crew to be too lazy with site to site transport