Space Vessel: Life Support Systems and Gravity

[Wingsley]

In "The Doomsday Machine", combat with the alien machine left the U.S.S. Constellation a drifting wreck. When the Enterprise found her, Spock determined "all power plants dead", but added that the ship's life support was "operating at a low power level".

Upon beaming over, Kirk and party found a ship "with life support systems still operating", that clearly offered useful levels of breathable air, minimal lighting, room temperature and gravity.

In "The Omega Glory", the Enterprise found the U.S.S. Exeter above planet Omega IV, in much better shape but apparently left on auto-pilot for months. Exeter was obviously still functioning without anyone to control or maintain her systems. She apparently was left on minimal power, much like the Constellation. Again, we see low lighting, the boarding party obviously finding breathable air, low lighting, room temperature and gravity again.

In "The Tholian Web", Kirk's boarding party finds the U.S.S. Defiant in much worse shape. Clearly, the ship was being affected by an extraordinary situation. At least some of her systems were operating. It is not clear if life support failed, was damaged, or was somehow deactivated. What did seem interesting (though not clearly confirmed) was that there may have still be gravitation on board the Defiant.

After the Enterprise-D's saucer crash lands Veridian III, we see little signs of the ship's systems still operating even after she was abandoned.

From these incidents, I wonder if canon can leave it to be determined that...

1: Federation space vessels carry systems for basic survival, obviously "life support", that can continue in most catastrophic circumstances even after the ship has been disabled or in the event of a crash and/or part of the ship having been destroyed.

2: Would it be a stretch to conclude that "life support" includes not just breathable air and room temperature, but also shipboard gravitation and lighting as well?

3: The Constellation's situation seems to suggest that minimal life support, including gravitation, will continue to operate even when the ship suffers severe damage including hull breaches and "all power plants dead". Correct?

4: The Defiant's situation in "The Tholian Web" suggests that an extraordinary situation must overwhelm the ship in order to require a boarding party to don spacesuits; even then, some "life support systems" may have still been functioning. We can't be clear on that, though. Correct?

 

[BlobVanDam]

I never think about it much anymore. I just accept the fact that space based scifi (especially an older show such as TOS), keep weightlessness to a minimum for cost reasons.

In fact, has a ship ever lost gravity in a Trek series? I know in "In a Mirror Darkly (pt 2)" they tweak the gravity of one corridor section to increase it, so it's obviously not permanent. And in the ENT pilot, Travis is in a section where the gravity reverses. Under what circumstances they'd need to lose all gravity, I don't know.

Maybe they're like plates that are "charged" to a certain gravity level, but retain their gravity for a while after losing power, sort of like a capacitor. So they can be altered, but still retain gravity when they lose power.

I of course am talking out of my ass here.

 

[Albertese]

I don't recall exactly, but it seems as though there was an episode where Voyager lost gravity, at least in some section.

It seems logical to me to assume that even though main power plants go off line, that emergency systems including gravity and life support and minimal lighting would have uninterruptable power supplies spread locally in each section. Think of these as emergency batteries.

Regarding the power requirements of artificial gravity, we don't really have any information about that at all. My understanding is that the gravity is provided by a series of smallish rotating exotic material stators housed in such a way that they spin at ridiculous speeds and generate a limited reaching gravity effect. The effect is proportional to the spin velocity. Raising or lowering this speed might be somewhat energy intensive, but once they're going, they'll tend to keep going. The speeds required to generate even .8g need a nearly frictionless environment to spin in. Given such conditions, the gravity generators might remain spinning for months or even many years without losing very much effect. Therefor unpowered ships would still be expected to have gravity. In fact, it would use more power to intentionally lower the gravity!

--Alex

 

[Deks]

Gravity and lighting to my knowledge aren't considered part of life support systems.
Life support generally implies (from what was loosely shown on-screen) breathable air and warmth.

 

[Mytran]

The TNG Tech Manual gives the spinning / 0.8g solution as well, very likely as an attempt to cover up the numerous instances where power failed on a starship yet the gravity kept our heros' boots firmly on the deck plates.

Another solution might be that Starfleet starships have really really good batteries that keep on churning out the gravitons for months at a time!!!

 

[Wingsley]

Gravity and lighting to my knowledge aren't considered part of life support systems.
Life support generally implies (from what was loosely shown on-screen) breathable air and warmth.

I wonder about that. Humans can got for quite a while with just breathable air at the right temp, but we also need water. And if your ship is disabled, you're going to need at least minimal lighting for the crew to get to work on repairs or whatever needs to be done.

 

[Tiberius]

Voyager lost gravity in part of the ship in "Prey" when the Hirogen was hunting a Species 8472. We saw it floating in mid air, but it was easy to do because it was CGI. As for the crew, they were in space suits with gravity boots, so no effects required.

 

[blssdwlf]

In "The Doomsday Machine", we have the dialogue mentioned indicating that life support was running off of the reserve energy banks (most likely batteries.) From the time the batteries kicked in to when the Enterprise found the Constellation would have been at most a few days since Commodore Decker didn't die of dehydration in his catatonic state. The batteries probably could have kept life support going for a while since the ship wasn't using it for anything else.

SPOCK: All power plants dead, reserve energy banks operative at a very low power level.
​

KIRK: Life support systems?
​

SPOCK: Also operative at a low power level. The entire Bridge is damaged and uninhabitable. The rest of the ship seems able to sustain life.
​

In "The Omega Glory", it doesn't appear that this would qualify for a ship that would have her life support or gravity impaired. Upon arrival, Sulu notes that it is undamaged and we can tell from the dialogue that the ship was left on automatic and parked a high orbit.

SULU: The sensors indicate no damage to the vessel, Captain.
...
Captain's log, supplemental. The Enterprise has left the Exeter and moved into close planet orbit.
​

In "The Tholian Web", I think the reason they beamed over in full space suits was that there was a possibility of the Defiant being an illusion (and thus beaming out unprotected into open space would be bad.) So this would also not IMHO be an example of a crippled starship that has lost it's life support or gravity.

SPOCK: There is virtually no sensor contact. No mass analysis. No trace of radiation. We see it, but our sensors indicate it is not there.
​

However, it does not appear that the Defiant is "damaged" other than phasing in and out of their universe

SPOCK: The ship is still functioning, Captain. It is logical to assume the mutineers are somewhere aboard.

​

TOS-specifically, gravity control seems to be mentioned separately alongside life support systems. But I think it is understood that life support included gravity.

In "The Cage", the batteries kick in automatically to keep gravity and life support going.

SPOCK: Nothing. But for the batteries we'd lose gravitation and oxygen.
​

In "Where No Man Has Gone Before", the batteries automatically kicked in for gravity control when main power is lost. Gravity drops to 0.8

KIRK: Gravitation on automatic.
...
CREWMAN [OC]: Gravity control switching to batteries.
...
SPOCK: Main engines are out, sir. We're on emergency power cells. Casualties, nine dead.
CREWMAN [OC]: Gravity is down to point eight
​

In "The Corbomite Maneuver", it seems that all main systems are dead but battery power is keeping gravity and life support going. Balok appears to recognize that with main systems off the gravity and life support systems wouldn't last the duration of the towing and permits the Enterprise's systems to be available again.

SULU: All engine systems show dead, and weapon systems.
...
BALOK [OC]: So that you may sustain your gravity and atmosphere, your systems are now open.
​

Also, a Gravity Chamber is used in "The Lights of Zetar" and they do zero-g Mira in the chamber


So, for TOS at least:

1. Gravity (and life support) switch automatically to batteries when there is a main system power failure.
2. Reserve Energy Systems or Batteries don't last forever and at some point when they can't provide enough power, life support and gravity stop working. We just haven't seen in TOS how long that is.
3. Batteries appear to be immune to alien interference

Now in TNG, that's a whole different can of worms How long do the batteries last on the USS Jenolan and the USS Hathaway?

 

[Wingsley]

Thanks for the direct quotes.

The thing I would add in the case of the Exeter and the Defiant is that both ships were left unattended for an unspecified period of time, possibly for months each. I am speculating, of course, but it does seem possible that a space vessel cannot remain fully operational for indefinite periods of time with no personnel aboard for maintenance. Of course, a warp-powered space vessel is presumably engineered to stay in calibration for what we might consider an impressive period of time, but I think it's likely that there is some sort of built-in "sleep mode" to extend the ship's functions for the longest possible period of time. This would allow a crew to abandon ship or go into suspended animation or whatever and still have a useful ship to restore at a future date.

As part of the engineering of this "sleep mode" design, I wonder if basic "creature comforts" like lighting, gravity, and food/water/sanitation processing aren't interconnected with the life support systems in case a crew has to work to repair their disabled ship on the frontier, with little or no output available from the powerplants. That would seem to be a logical aspect of deep space vessel design.

 

[Search4]

There's a great deal of background chatter in TOS... usually about ships status and such... and the one i mostly hear is "Gravity down to 0.8" or somesuch. So, we have at least some canon evidence that gravity is artificially generated, and can be damaged.

 

[Wingsley]

Well, maybe that's an underlying point of this discussion. It seems logical that gravity, lighting and other ship's services like "life support" are decentralized and engineered to operate "at a low power level" as a contingency. This would explain a great deal about how starships work and what happens when they are disabled.

Another point we've overlooked: when the U.S.S. Saratoga is attacked in TMP4, her systems are overwhelmed. Despite that, there appears to still be lighting and gravity... although that may be stretching things a little. (The slanting of the Saratoga bridge may have been the studio's way of showing how everything, including gravity, was going down).

 

[MacLeod]

Well in the case of the those abandoned ships, perhaps the minimal sensors that were left working might have detected no life signs onboard ship and powered down gravity. however when a transorpet beam, federation ship was detcected it turned it baCK On.

 

[throwback]

In extraordinary situations, a starship's reserve banks can be damaged or destroyed by energy forms unknown to Federation science. Such an event happened upon the U.S.S. Yorktown in 2286 after contact with an alien probe. The ship's engineers crafted a solar sail to power the ship's basic systems until help arrived.

 

[blssdwlf]

Regarding the Saratoga and Yorktown in "The Voyage Home", I still think that batteries (aka reserve energy) are immune to alien effects. The last words we hear from the Saratoga?

SARATOGA SCIENCE OFFICER: All systems have failed. ...We are functioning on reserve power only.
​

And even though the captain of the Yorktown made it sound really dire, they still had life support for three hours and enough energy to maintain communications with Earth

YORKTOWN CAPTAIN: (on viewscreen) Emergency channel zero one three zero. Code red. It has been three hours since our contact with the alien Probe. All attempts at regaining power have failed.
...
YORKTOWN CAPTAIN: (on viewscreen) Our systems engineers are trying to deploy a makeshift solar-sail. We have high hopes that this will, if successful, generate power to keep us alive.
​

Most likely to generate power to recharge those awesome batteries, IMHO

I think whatever batteries they use in TOS/TOS-films, it must be so incredibly simple or low-tech enough that advanced alien devices have no affect on them which conveniently works for life support and gravity systems

 

[Timo]

Reserve Energy Systems or Batteries don't last forever and at some point when they can't provide enough power, life support and gravity stop working. We just haven't seen in TOS how long that is.

Let's not forget this nugget o' gold:

Kirk: "How long would you like it to last?"
Odona of Gideon: "Forever!"
Kirk: "Well, let's see. Power, that's no problem, it regenerates. And food. We have enough to feed a crew of four hundred and thirty for five years. So that should last us-"
Odona: "Forever."

We know the ship can run out of fuel, so not all "power" is free of problems, not all of it regenerates forever. But Kirk is obviously talking about just life support and creature comforts here.

Of course, Kirk himself never says "forever". And Odona's "forever" regarding food for 430 people is figurative, not literal (in the sense that it will last two thirty-somethings a lifetime, which is not technically the same as forever). OTOH, Kirk might be saying that food regenerates, too...

It wouldn't be outlandish to assume that a normally running starship, or even a starship that has lost main power generation and onboard energy stores, can run an "incidental" system that independently provides enough power for "free" life support, gravity and so forth. A bit similar to the ram air turbines of aircraft that provide "free" (hydraulic) power even when all power generation and (hydraulic) power storage aboard the aircraft is lost. The ram air turbine only works as long as the aircraft is flying through air (or sitting on the tarmac in a really stiff wind!), of course. A starship could plausibly have a highly analogous system that provides free power as long as the ship is gliding through some static property of space, such as magnetic fields (often found in orbit around habitable or otherwise interesting planets) or the subspace background.

Indeed, if gliding through (sub)space will induce power in an emergency life support power system, then it makes perfect sense for the Yorktown crew in ST4:TVH to rig a solar sail for restoring life support power!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[blssdwlf]

Reserve Energy Systems or Batteries don't last forever and at some point when they can't provide enough power, life support and gravity stop working. We just haven't seen in TOS how long that is.

Let's not forget this nugget o' gold:

Kirk: "How long would you like it to last?"
Odona of Gideon: "Forever!"
Kirk: "Well, let's see. Power, that's no problem, it regenerates. And food. We have enough to feed a crew of four hundred and thirty for five years. So that should last us-"
Odona: "Forever."

We know the ship can run out of fuel, so not all "power" is free of problems, not all of it regenerates forever. But Kirk is obviously talking about just life support and creature comforts here.

Hmm... this would seem to suggest that the ship if undamaged could have power indefinitely as long as the power regeneration systems are working. (The main system then recharges the batteries as needed.)

We get a glimpse of how long the batteries might last when power is cutoff in "Mudd's Women". The episode suggests that the batteries could maintain life support AND hold the Enterprise in orbit for over 3 days before giving out. And that is after already being drained to maintain life support and transporter operation for 2 days and powering the entire ship's pre-orbit approach.

If the ship didn't have to maintain orbit (or transporter ops) then I bet the batteries could have gone for more days - but how many is unknown.

 

[Wingsley]

^ This line of discussion brings another issue to mind: during "By Any Other Name", the Kelvans took control of the Enterprise and made some modifications to her engines. The ship left the Galaxy at Warp 11 or more, bound for Kelva in the Andromeda Galaxy. At such high speeds, the journey was supposed to take less than 300 years.

Rojan and his small team may have modified the Enterprise, but they obviously did not rebuild her.

If we accept the notion that "power regenerates", this would explain why nobody seemed concerned that the Enterprise would run out of fuel in the intergalactic void. Perhaps the matter-antimatter reaction is fed by some kind of zero-point mechanism that taps into natural energy to generate limited quantities of fuel. By doing this, the ship doesn't have to carry large quantities of fuel on a voyage; they simply make small amounts as they go along.

This would also explain what Kryton was messing with in the Engine Room ("Elaan of Troyus") and why the dilitium assembly was pulsating even while exposed to the atmosphere. Perhaps that assembly is the zero-point generator, and the fuel-fabricator it powers is what fires up the warp engines. This would also explain why Scotty complained that, without it, the ship could not fire its weapons.

 

[TIN_MAN]

^^ I would suggest also that once the engines are up and running they continually recharge or regenerate themselves via sucking in the space/matter/energy matrix (which includes more matter/anti-matter?) unless interupted by accident or design.

The thing to remember about the zero-point energy device is that it must be limited in its ability to tap ZPE power, otherwise there would be no need to use M/A-M at all.

 

[Wingsley]

Well, that's just it. The energy-regeneration system allows the ship to generate or convert anitmatter in small, steady amounts.

 

[blssdwlf]

So it could look something like this...

1. M/AM reactor gets injected M+AM
2. Captured M/AM reaction energy is pumped to the Main Energizer
3. Main Energizer controls charging/discharging of Lithium/Dilithium Crystals in the Crystal Converter Assembly
4. Discharged lithium/dilithium energy regenerates (taps zpe?) to create more M+AM*
5. repeat step 1

As long as there is power that isn't being used, they could recharge the reserves aka batteries.

*Okay, here's a crazy thought. Dilithium crystals in "The Alternative Factor" are used to open the corridor between the matter universe and the antimatter universe. (And also spot radiation from the antimatter universe.) What if this isn't coincidence that it's from an antimatter universe? It would then be possible that discharging dilithium in a special device pulls antimatter into the matter universe but not enough to trigger the "winking out" effect. So the more charged the crystal, the more antimatter can be generated (or regenerated ). Then could 4 crystals in TOS be the upper limit for safely regenerating (aka stealing AM) M+AM power?