# Why aren't people weightless on Sci-fi film Space Craft? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 12, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-people-weightless-on-sci-fi-film-space-craft/517359 "2009-11-12T21:07:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-people-weightless-on-sci-fi-film-space-craft/517359/21 "2009-11-13T01:58:06Z")
Enterprise did a scene like that - it was Mayweather (who grew up on a similar ship) and Reid. Although since Mayweather grew up with it, he wasn’t annoyed. Reid was a bit pissy about it at a few points, though. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-people-weightless-on-sci-fi-film-space-craft/517359/22 "2009-11-13T03:03:08Z")
In **Star Trek VI: The Final Frontier** a Klingon ship is fired on, disabling its artificial gravity. Some guys wearing gravity boots beam aboard and shoot a Klingon floating helplessly. > [@whiterabbit](#): > > You sure that wasn’t B5? There was a bit with Dr. Franklin and Marcus in just that situation. I can’t speak for DS9 but the B5 episode - Season 4’s Atonement - is as you described. BTW, while the station(s) in B5 generates gravity by rotation other races did have artificial gravity technology they were willing to share. ---
**Author:** ![Omi\_no\_Kami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Omi\_no\_Kami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omi_no_Kami)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-people-weightless-on-sci-fi-film-space-craft/517359/23 "2009-11-13T03:10:56Z")
As far as _Deep Space 9_ is concerned I do remember reading an interesting piece of trivia. There is a single episode featuring a starfleeet officer from a low or zero-g world, who is physically unused to earth normal gravity. She spends her free time in quarters modded to provide zero g, and has to use a wheelchair to get around the rest of the station. Now, apparently Jadzia Dax, one of the main characters, was originally supposed to be the person with this plotline, but the producers found early on that the wirework required to shoot frequent zero gravity scenes was prohibitively difficult and time-consuming, so they scrapped it and later re-used the idea on a much smaller scale. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-people-weightless-on-sci-fi-film-space-craft/517359/24 "2009-11-13T03:35:51Z")
Artificial gravity also makes plausible why ships in space should be designed with a well-defined “up” and “down”- the “bottom” of the ship is where the gravity is being generated. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-people-weightless-on-sci-fi-film-space-craft/517359/25 "2009-11-13T04:19:56Z")
> [@](#): > > 2001: A Space Odyssey had both believable artificial gravity (created by the space craft rotating) and believable people floating within and outside space craft, so it can be done, even with 40-year-old movie-making technology (2001 was filmed in 1968). The sequel _2010_ also attempted to depict zero gravity coniditions realistically. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-people-weightless-on-sci-fi-film-space-craft/517359/26 "2009-11-13T05:45:35Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > There are some other reasons why artificial gravity of some sort is likely to be required. First, it is far from clear that humans can stay healthy on five year missions in a zero-g environment. Second, the red shirts will be in even more trouble trying to adjust from a zero-g Enterprise to a more or less 1-g planet every few weeks. Third, if you buy tractor beams, you buy artificial gravity. The only way I can think of implementing a tractor beam is through some controlled stream of gravitons. Have that, you just put a whole bunch of diffuse tractor beams in the floors, and you have artificial gravity also. Actually, I’d be pretty happy if an Expository Lump occured in an early episode, saying that humans couldn’t stay healthy in long-term freefall or microgravity, and that’s why the ships all have some sort of artificial g. Every now and then, an episode could have the artificial gravity generators develop some problem, and the medical staff could have a hissy fit, insisting that they be fixed, because Studies Have Shown that the human body begins deteriorating after a very short period of time of low/no g. And the poor red shirts have enough problems as it is. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-people-weightless-on-sci-fi-film-space-craft/517359/27 "2009-11-13T13:27:17Z")
Tim R. Mortiss writes: \> I keep hearing that, but then how do you explain Eyes Wide Shut? Because being a perfectionist isn’t the same thing as being perfect. Kubrick was obsessive-compulsive, and he got worse later in his career. When he had a great idea for a movie, he could make sure that the script was right before he began filming and he could film it correctly because he was willing to do many takes if necessary. When he didn’t have a good idea, he could waste time on a bad idea. As his obsessive-compulsiveness got worse, he could waste time reshooting scenes that were already fine. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-people-weightless-on-sci-fi-film-space-craft/517359/28 "2009-11-13T18:15:49Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Actually, I’d be pretty happy if an Expository Lump occured in an early episode, saying that humans couldn’t stay healthy in long-term freefall or microgravity, and that’s why the ships all have some sort of artificial g. Every now and then, an episode could have the artificial gravity generators develop some problem, and the medical staff could have a hissy fit, insisting that they be fixed, because Studies Have Shown that the human body begins deteriorating after a very short period of time of low/no g. If you listen carefully to the background chatter in the early shows of TOS, you will hear some guy say “gravity is down to point 8.” He says it the same way every time there is a crisis. Must be a boring job. As for the lump, the reason I loved ST when it first came out was that it didn’t have those lumps, and was like good (or at least tolerable) sf in that it counted on us to be smart enough to figure it out. Same with warp drive - they never said that you couldn’t exceed the speed of light by just going faster and thus needed some kind of warp drive, but it was clear that Roddenberry actually got it. In 1966, this was earth shattering for TV sf. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-people-weightless-on-sci-fi-film-space-craft/517359/29 "2009-11-13T18:30:34Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Artificial gravity also makes plausible why ships in space should be designed with a well-defined “up” and “down”- the “bottom” of the ship is where the gravity is being generated. It doesn’t really explain why every other ship encountered always seems to have the same “up”/“down” orientation as the one you’re on. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-people-weightless-on-sci-fi-film-space-craft/517359/30 "2009-11-13T18:39:28Z")
> [@Duke\_of\_Rat](#): > > It doesn’t really explain why every other ship encountered always seems to have the same “up”/“down” orientation as the one you’re on. Well because if down was up and up was down, you’d just stand on the ceiling and call it the floor. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-people-weightless-on-sci-fi-film-space-craft/517359/31 "2009-11-13T18:48:46Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > Well because if down was up and up was down, you’d just stand on the ceiling and call it the floor. I mean you pop out of hyperspace, or warp, or whatever and there’s the Klingons or the Death Star or an Imperial cruiser, and their ship is at the same orientation as yours. Their “up” is your “up”. I could see it if all the ships were orbiting a planet or something, but here we are, in the dead depths of space, and our ships are always at the same orientation. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-people-weightless-on-sci-fi-film-space-craft/517359/32 "2009-11-13T19:16:53Z")
I like the way this was handled in the _Firefly_ pilot - they clearly have AG, but it wasn’t on by default in the airlock. People floated in carrying boxes in 0G, and then the AG was turned on and the boxes thumped to the floor. And ships didn’t always meet with the same horizontal plane, either. ---
**Author:** ![emarkp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3be4f8/32.png) [@emarkp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emarkp)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-people-weightless-on-sci-fi-film-space-craft/517359/33 "2009-11-13T22:50:08Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > Well because if down was up and up was down, you’d just stand on the ceiling and call it the floor. Well silly, the enemy’s gate is _always_ down. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-people-weightless-on-sci-fi-film-space-craft/517359.md?page=1)