What light colors/bulbs should be used inside a spaceship?
I've noticed in recent scifi shows/movies such as the Expanse or Star Trek that the lighting inside spaceships have two characteristics:
- Punishingly blue lighting
- Dark/dimmed miscellaneous lighting everywhere else
This doesn't seem useful or practical, but it does make me wonder what lighting could we expect in modern or near-future spacecraft?
On the ISS, for example, the space station seems to illuminate a normal, white light in the main hallways or gathering areas. This is done (I presume) for easy maintenance, among other reasons. So darkening your spaceship wouldn't make sense unless you're trying to conserve power.
Also, from my understanding, warm colors are easier on human eyes. Further, blue lighting would require more power than colors such as yellow or red, so why not design spaceships with that sort of lighting?
Better yet, what sort of light bulbs should be used on a modern or near-futuristic spaceship? LEDs? Incandescent? Something else?
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1 answer
LEDs
LEDs are currently the most energy efficient readily available lighting system. Better things may come along, but the reason you read about fluorescent light bulbs in older novels is because they were the most efficient at the time the story was written.
Wait a minute, we have fusion/warp/antimatter/etc. drive, why does power use matter? It doesn't matter much when you are in warp drive and all systems are working 100%. But when your warp core is overloaded and taken offline and your impulse engines have been damaged by enemy fire and your shields are down, you do NOT want to have use any more energy than absolutely necessary for lighting.
LEDs are also more durable than incandescent and fluorescent lights. Some LEDs have glass covers, but that is often for compatibility with the look and/or form factor or older bulb types. But LEDs are themselves solid state devices and do not need to be inside a vacuum or any special gas mixture. That makes them more durable than other types of lighting, which is important when you get hit by phasers.
In addition, LEDs can have multiple-color and dimmable (typically via PWM, but that doesn't matter for your story) capabilities. That allows for:
Sleep vs. Wake Time
Dimming, and possibly some color variation, is great for sleep time on ships. The nice thing about LEDs is you can do all this with one set of fixtures and adjust electronically. Emergency - turn everything on full brightness instantly!
White, most of the time
You want bright, white light for best visibility for reading and working in most cases. Any non-white color will normally make some other colors hard to see. Darkrooms used to use red light because typical film was less sensitive to red light. But for normal use, white light of some variant (cool vs. warm vs. "sunlight") is definitely better than blue or green or red.
There are some exceptions though. In addition to the great theatrical effects, going to red for "red alert" makes a lot of sense. A low red light - enough to safely run to your battle stations - is all you need. The individual consoles will be lit up as needed, but keeping the overall light level relatively low may actually help the crew focus on their tasks instead of looking around at everyone else.
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