At the same time, the gravity systems are designed by the best engineers in the Federation because they never, ever, give out, even when the rest of the ship is disintegrating.
this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2023
105 points (97.3% liked)
Star Trek
10572 readers
79 users here now
r/startrek: The Next Generation
Star Trek news and discussion. No slash fic...
Maybe a little slash fic.
New to Star Trek and wondering where to start?
Rules
1 Be constructive
All posts/comments must be thoughtful and balanced.
2 Be welcoming
It is important that everyone from newbies to OG Trekkers feel welcome, no matter their gender, sexual orientation, religion or race.
3 Be truthful
All posts/comments must be factually accurate and verifiable. We are not a place for gossip, rumors, or manipulative or misleading content.
4 Be nice
If a polite way cannot be found to phrase what it is you want to say, don't say anything at all. Insulting or disparaging remarks about any human being are expressly not allowed.
5 Spoilers
Utilize the spoiler system for any and all spoilers relating to the most recently-aired episodes, as well as previews for upcoming episodes. There is no formal spoiler protection for episodes/films after they have been available for approximately one week.
6 Keep on-topic
All submissions must be directly about the Star Trek franchise (the shows, movies, books etc.). Off-topic discussions are welcome at c/quarks.
7 Meta
Questions and concerns about moderator actions should be brought forward via DM.
Upcoming Episodes
| Date | Episode | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 10-31 | LD 5x03 | "The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel" |
| 11-07 | LD 5x04 | "A Farewell to Farms" |
| 11-14 | LD 5x05 | "Star Base 80?" |
| 11-21 | LD 5x06 | "Of Gods and Angels" |
| 11-28 | LD 5x07 | "Fully Dilated" |
In Production
Strange New Worlds (2025)
Section 31 (2025-01-24)
Starfleet Academy (TBA)
In Development
Untitled comedy series
Wondering where to stream a series? Check here.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Aritificial Gravity is probably part of the system that prevents everyone from going splat against the window Maneo style when they leave warp. Without inertial dampening you couldn't move ships basically at all, so these systems are probably passive.
The inertial dampeners have issues all the time tho, but instead of everyone getting turned into red mist against a surface instantly it just causes them to sway a little and the camera to shake.
Survivor(star)ship bias: There are only episodes about minor issues with the inertial dampeners because major issues with the system would be very short and messy, and not make for good archival training footage for cadets or whatever the Watsonian reason for our Doyalist TV show may be.
Trek might not really go for gore often, but an episode where you see the aftermath wouldn't go amiss
There is this scene in the Expanse, when a ship suddenly slows down.
A very messy scene.
I really have to watch this show, I keep hearing great things
It's not Star Trek, but in my opinion, the best SF series since DS9.
I don't say "better", because they are set in different subgenres, so at some point comparison fails.
Let's put it like this: I am as much a fan of one as I am of the other.
I watched most of the first episode but had to leave the couch for real world reasons (tragedy). So far it's fantastic! Verymuch not Star Trek which is a nice change and unusual for me. Thanks for the recommendation!
I am so sorry for the tragedy that happened to you. I hope, you have people to be with you.
--
I'm glad, you liked my recommendation. Many people don't get hooked until the 4th episode or so, so, if you're not entirely convinced, give it some time.
(remember the 1st season of TNG?)
You're very kind! To be clear, the tragedy was leaving the couch and TV. I'm back now.
Inertial Dampeners failing means the ship can no longer remain at warp. (Ship would be fine, the meat bags of mostly water would not) Trek is usually pretty consistent about that part.
You should really only need inertial dampeners when changing velocity. You only go splat when the ship's velocity is significantly different from yours. If it slows down before you do, you splat on the forward bulkhead. If it speeds up faster than you, you splat on the aft bulkhead.
And they even work even when a dampening field has shut down all power systems on the ship.
I can't remember which series this is from but I swear I remember them saying that the grav plating still holds a charge even in the event of total power failure. So even when the ship is disabled, gravity will maintain it's hold for a period of time and then will slowly dissipate
If it was mentioned, it was probably in ENT. They talked a lot more about grav plating in that show than any of the others, probably more than all of them combined.
I used to put that one in the same category as the man-in-suit gorn from TOS: budget/tech restrictions. But even in the latest SNW episode, we see someone waking up on a piece of wreckage with gravity still perfectly fine, while also getting several zero gravity scenes in the same episode.
They did that one time on Undiscovered Country. I guess that was a Klingon ship though.
The explanation I've always had- I think this was from some official source but I could have just made it up.
Starfleet ships use EPS (Electro-Plasma System) to route power around the ship in the form of electro-plasma (a highly energized form of plasma). The warp core generates a lot of this plasma, which is piped through conduits to various devices around the ship. The EPS system and its related systems generate a lot of treknobabble about 'scrubbing plasma conduits' (apparently done from the outside using a field generator tool, but still boring), 'replacing plasma relays' (the valves that route plasma around, apparently they go bad frequently); problems like ruptured plasma conduits are dangerous and require immediate repair, etc.
Because this all works in a grid system, whenever the ship takes damage (especially energetic damage like weapons fire) the EPS conduits can carry energy spikes all over the ship. That's why as the ship takes damage you see random small explosions and sparks all over the place- something hits or spikes the EPS grid and the shockwave ends up, well, wherever in the grid it ends up.
Of course many EPS conduits go to bridge terminals, especially as those terminals may have direct connections to the ship systems in question.
Of course in reality this would be seen as a horrible safety risk, and a bridge terminal that could probably run on a car battery shouldn't have explosive plasma running through it especially when it can explode and harm the operator. In fact one could argue a safe starship should keep all EPS stuff as far away from any essential human-inhabited areas of the ship as possible (especially the bridge).
One counter to that might be that perhaps the consoles actually play some role in EPS switching, but that seems a bad tradeoff to me.
OP was pretty on the nose. Cool.
Now explain the rocks
safety foam that absorbs the energy of the plasma, turning the super heated plasma into more harmless solid matter
In the 32nd century, ‘rocks’ would just be the result of programmable matter ‘bricking’.
Earlier though…
Easy. Electroplasma is very hot and very energetic. When it ruptures out of the conduit, The hot energetic plasma not only mechanically fractures the materials around it, but the plasma itself is a form of matter that will, when it's energy is released and it cools, return to whatever state it would normally be at room temperature.
Surface ships use deuterium and anti-deuterium as fuel, deuterium is liquid at room temperature. Assuming the combined plasma is also deuterium, that would mean it is eventually condensing to liquid. So I imagine the interaction between the plasma and some other material would turn the other material into a sort of spongy texture, which is probably dark due to being scorched. Thus, I don't think that's rock at all. It is scorched material from around the plasma conduit, that has been melted and integrated with the plasma which then returned to a lower energy state, namely deuterium steam or liquid.
deuterium is liquid at room temperature
I think you are confusing Deuterium with heavy-water. Deuterium is a heavy isotope of Hydrogen, and so is gas at room temperature. Heavy water is water where the Hydrogen atoms of the water molecule are of the Deuterium isotope, and is liquid at room temperature.
You're absolutely right. But that actually makes even more sense. Squirt superheated plasma into a solid mass, it basically all melts together into a slurry, then the deuterium cools into gas and is released, the resulting material which is solid at room temperature ends up looking like scorched foam
When a console overloads, it’s way better to be thrown from the seat than to be burned and electrocuted. The lack of seat belts is a safety feature.
Turns out, it's not the blast that throws then around, they are all sitting on ejection seats
Consoles are rigged with explosives to keep the lower decks in line.
Some engineer friends think it’s failure by design to avoid greater risks - much like a fuse burning out.
But why not do it more safely?
Over at Daystrom, this comes up from time to time. I've formed a head-canon for it as well. To quote one of my comments on a thread there regarding the explosions (and the "rocks"):
My understanding is that the "rocks" are a product of the electroplasma system being exposed to air. Whether that is some sort of coolant that is meant to seal the EPS leak in that console or some sort of EPS byproduct reacting in air, I don't remember or have a head-canon for it.
All of that said, if I form this reply into one worthy of Daystrom, then I say it is an intended safety mechanism to protect the crew against catastrophic failure of the EPS conduits.
So, the consoles are exploding from the failure of the EPS conduits and the expansion of the coolant.
In an episode of DS9 I heard some of the characters mention that they not only have deflector shields, but also "structural reinforcement shields." So whatever science-fictiony force field is used to protect them from phasers and micrometeorites is also coursing through the skeletal structure of the ship.
When I heard this it immediately clicked in my mind: whenever the ship is hit with phaser fire the explosions happening inside are recoil from these internal shields. Perhaps the catastrophic damage prevented by structural reinforcement shields outweighs the localized damage of potentially fatal recoil.
That is my favorite explanation, anyway.
(This assumes all ships have structural reinforcement shields, and not just the Defiant.)
Voyager definitely has. I don’t remember it being mentioned in TNG or TOS though and Voyager is a newer ship than the Defiant…
What about the rocks, though? It always seems like a starship is built around a massive quarry.
The rocks eat the eps plasma and turn it into console lights and computer food.
Space rocks
Fellow Junkball fan?
Idk what Junkball is, but I'm a Calvinball fan! And a Junk Rat main back in the day, one of his skins shot cricket balls instead of grenades. So yeah, I guess I am!
Well darn, Junkball always does SPACE ROCKS! in their starship restrictive videos.
ROCK AND STONE FOREVER!
They also seem to mostly navigate on the same 2D plane of space, given the ships usually encounter each other the "right way up".
TWOK's nebula submarine hunt is my favorite Star Trek battle because it actually takes place in three dimensions.
"Haven't you people ever heard of fuses?!?" -John Crichton