[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
Now even if you accept that there is internal artificial gravity how do they enter this 'artificial' gravity so abruptly as we see them do in the landing sequences? They just glide into this huge open hatch and land as if they were planes on a carrier deck. If there really was a gravity field inside the ship they'd hit it like a wall and suddenly bang down on the deck. It's downright bizarre if you care anything about scientific realism or even consistency.

I don't see this as a problem either. Of course you have to assume they figured out some means of generating artificial gravity, cause otherwise it's a moot point. But you said as much yourself. Once you have that hurdle crossed then there are a couple things that could easily explain the rest of it and would be perfectly reasonable.

The artificial gravity fields could be areas on the hanger deck. Why do you assume the entire deck would have the same gravity field everywhere? You could have areas of little or no gravity for the ships to land and move about by thrusters, and then parking pads where the gravity is normal for walking in and out of the ship. And the gravity in the parking pads could be switched on and off when needed.

You could also assume that the gravity field IS uniform across the whole surface of the hanger deck, but that it only extends upwards a few feet. Things in contact with the deck, people walking around, etc. would stay in contact as they are under normal gravity. But a ship taliking off or landing would feel less and less gravity the farther it got from the surface. Similer to how it is on Earth, but the artificial gravity force would drop off much more rapidly. Instead of needing to travel a few miles to break free, you would only need to travel a few feet to break free from the artifical gravity field.

This would have some odd effects on the people walking around. They would have a slight but perceptable differance in the "weight" of their feet compared to their heads. But with time and training people would adapt and get their "Space legs" and it would not affect them. People watching them move about would not even be able to see a differance in their movements. Thrown objects would not travel in expected parabolic paths as you would see on a planet, but throwing things about a hanger deck isn't a good idea even in the surface Navy.

Geo