Why Gravity in Jefferies Tube

[Nebusj]

Although a deck gravity plate apparently has immense gradients, so that pull from Deck 3 abruptly truncates and creates zero pull on Deck 4...

Or the plating on each deck contains, or possibly augments, the gravity from the plate below. It seems reasonable to me that apart from the lowermost decks, for example, the normal function of a single deck's plating is just to reinforce whatever gravity's been lost or dispersed from the floor below, shifting over to full gravity only if the deck below's lost gravity. Since the system is so reliable, except in damage-report chatter on the Original Series (where it's dropping to point-eight all the time), it's clearly technology that's got a lot supporting it.

 

[Timo]

Hmm. At the very least, there's a sharp gradient on the exterior, so that spacewalks require special magnetic (gravitic?) boots in order not to become spacefloats.

How could we have local lack of gravity in the above scenario? When we get a single zero-gee room in "Melora", we can argue it's because Bashir turns on a special machine for creating the effect. But when we get a single zero-gee shower stall in "Unexpected", it must be a malfunction, "a little trouble with gravity plating on E Deck" to be specific. A malfunction that turns on a gravity-defying functionality sounds much less likely than one that turns off a gravity-sustaining one.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[B.J.]

My personal head-canon is that gravity plating requires both plating in the floor and a corresponding set in the ceiling, creating the gravity field between them. That would explain why there isn't any "gravity" outside the ship, it's because anyone walking on the hull is not between any sets of gravity plates.

 

[Ronald Held]

I think that inotial gravity plating might be like a capacitor with a field between the plates and little to none in the exterior. None of that for a tractor beam only an emitter.

 

[Matthew Raymond]

Gravity would make sense if Jeffery's Tubes were full height corridors. If you have corridors for accessing equipment that are just big enough for people to stand and turn around, it would be far easier to maintenance vital equipment and ship's systems. So perhaps the question we should be asking is: "Why have Jeffery's Tubes?"

 

[Timo]

Or, more exactly, "Why do Jeffries tubes suddenly cease to be standing height in the middle of TNG?".

The TOS one was close enough to vertical to count as "standing height" in terms of both transit along it (it's a ladderway) and working in it (Scotty is more or less upright, his hands free for use). The original TNG tube was standing height as late as "The Hunted".

But naturally, the crawlways were "always" there aboard the E-D, in-universe. And conversely, the nicely full-height tubes were "always" there in the E-nil, as seen when ENT "In a Mirror Darkly" features a sister ship.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Mytran]

A couple of awkward crawlspaces here and there I could understand - but there are whole NETWORKS of those darn TNG Jefferies Tubes, stretching off into the distance as far as the eye could see. And to make matters worse, the corridor set was designed with pop-off panels for the crew to access machinery with ease. Are miles of crawlways really a more efficient solution?

 

[Timo]

Might be there's a robot to go with the tube dimensions, but a decree from on high bans its use from mid-TNG on because the poor thing just might be sentient enough to warrant civil rights yet refuses to sign a contract.

Why Cardassians would build similarly constrained accessways is another mystery. Possibly they want to establish a maximum size for slaves that escape via the tubes?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[TommyR01D]

It's shown that many personnel aren't particularly comfortable with zero-gravity ordeals.

Picking at panels in a crawlspace is bad enough without vomit floating around you.

 

[publiusr]

Sometimes you need to bear down to get a part loose anyway.

Working on asteroids, say--will probably require a cable over the top of a floating astronaut.

 

[CRM-114]

Why are engineers crawling through Jeffereries tubes with gravity plating on, not just on, but at full gravity?

You can't tell me gliding down those things wouldn't be faster, easier on the knees.

And its a easy fix for cameras. Tie some fishing line on a tool, make it float. Harness on a actor, zip him down a line- tilt him upside down or wear a hat for hair issues. Floating ponytails can't be that hard.

Seriously, just no excuse why elderly Scotty had to crawl. That's inhumane. Just float and push off. I saw they made Archer float a few times on a TV show, it's technologically feasible for a modern film crew on the cheap to do. I don't want to see another starship on the verge of destruction as a engineer crawls, leap headfirst into that tube and zoom fast. Adds to the drama.

A better question that has a simple answer: On vessels that produce artificial gravity, why is it the only system that never fails, even on a derelict? Simple: the realities of TV production.