How would artificial gravity be achieved in space?
I am wondering, what mechanism would be needed to generate gravity on a space ship in interstellar space, like we see it on Star Trek or Star Wars? What is the most realistic hypothetical way what would be achieved?
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Most realistic way is centripetal force, which is the rotating wheel that you see on space stations and ships in movies.
Linear acceleration also works, but requires you to maintain constant thrust.
Sci-fi ways to do it...
If you had room temperature super conductors, you could use super conducting magnets to produce diamagnetic fields. They have levitated a mouse that way. It would require a very strong magnetic field, and it is unknown what prolonged effects that would have on living organisms. (You can do it without room temperature super conductors, but it would be easier).
Gravitomagnetism might work, but that's kind of out there. Currently they've only generated 100 millionths of a g. With the right breakthroughs that could be improved...
string theory predicts that gravity and electromagnetism unify in hidden dimensions, so artificial is probably possible with the right knowledge.
Really, unless you want to go with the rotating ring or linear acceleration, you're going to have to hand wave a lot of stuff, so it's probably better to just say "It works" and not explain how, unless it's super important. Just like they do in Star Trek and Star Wars.
Silly Edit: One thing that we know works is mass. So if you were to weave fine neutronium filaments into the carpet, then the resulting mass could have enough gravity pull you down toward the floor...
Edit 2: So a less silly edit. I was thinking about it some more, and I remembered another possibility: The Graviton. It's a theoretical particle, but if they discover it, it will unite quantum theory with gravity. So let's say at some point in the near future that the Graviton is discovered*, and then someone figures out how to generate them to create a (directed) gravitational field. This would also work for tractor beams, which could be a focused graviton laser, and repulsor fields to get an "Anti-Gravity" effect. Graviton drives could be used to take off from planets and for in-system propulsion by attracting or repulsing the planet's/sun's gravity.
* Maybe using the first space particle accelerator, which rings Jupiter and uses the planets power to operate. It had to be a space based accelerator because earth's gravity pushes all generated gravitons away before they can be seen.
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