Thanks for the perspective from the novels. I have yet to get the time to read most of the reboot. So, I’ll be glad to see it used when I do. :-)
Orbit, I don't understand that. I think if it was non functioning, when you were walking around inside it, wearing a spacesuit, your magnetic boots would be walking on floors, ceilings and walls. I soooo confused.
I'd like to have seen a flasback episode with EN at peak operation. Would seem that it was a haven for Obsidian order and military black ops.
Whenever we see these ships and stations in a low, artificially maintained geosynchronous orbits, the gravity of the bodies being orbited will be felt. Thus there is an up and a down.
No, it does not appear to be. However, being in space is not itself enough to render up and down meaningless, as per the question I was answering.
Not necessarily. Terok Nor was one, because it was constructed in orbit of Bajor for the purpose of strip-mining the planet. Empok Nor may have had a completely different purpose.
I think that, lacking further explanation from TBTB, we can safely assume that Empok Nor was built for much the same purposes in much the same circumstances as Terok Nor. We can also assume that since it was never fully deactivated, just decommissioned and powered to "station-keeping" standby, that its artificial gravity and life support were still functioning, else the entire DS9 crew would have suffocated on their first visit. The real reason it was shown tilted was that it required very little cost, and you can still reuse the DS9 sets - set dressings were minimal - just turn off all the lights and throw junk all over the floor. Requring the actors to wear spacesuits the whole episode would have doubled filming time, manufacturing new costumes would be expensive and filming anti-grav would have been prohibitive.
If memory serves me, life support and gravity were already off when O'Brien and his gang got there. Garak went in a suit to restart it and make sure no booby traps were waiting when the rest walked in.