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First time post, so sorry if I seem rather clueless. Anyway, if there was a large city in space and I wanted it to have gravity. I know one of the only realistic options would be to emulate the artificial gravity method used in 'the expanse'. So my question is that would it be possible to use linear gravity on a giant space station? and if so is it possible to maintain orbit of the sun at that speed? I would use rotational gravity but I don't like how limiting that is in the design part.

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    $\begingroup$ Hi, welcome to Worldbuilding! I think your question is very similar to a few other questions that have been asked before, such as this, this, this and this. As it seems most similar to the last of last list, I'm flagging it as a duplicate. If you feel it's not quite appropriate for whatever reason, feel free to edit your question to explain the differences $\endgroup$
    – Mithrandir24601
    Commented Nov 11, 2017 at 11:46

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To have gravity you need acceleration; that may be provided by space warping due to presence of mass (i.e.: a planet) or real acceleration.

Rotation has the inherent advantage it provides constant acceleration without changing speed; this means you needn't provide energy to keep up, only to spin-up.

This it is not too "limiting that in the design part", you just need to be creative: Admittedly many of "standard" designs are in the form of a cylinder or a ring, but those aren't the only options:

  • You may have two almost-flat areas connected with "suspension cables" and have them rotate around their center of gravity.
  • You may have a single flat area suspended to a counterweight.
  • You can have multiple masses connected in a (broken) ring.
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I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "linear gravity" but there are 3 ways to create a gravitational effect:

  1. Accumulate sufficient mass in one place (such as on planet earth) and build the city there.

  2. Accelerate your city at a constant rate in any direction. This is quite feasible, but the problem is you need a massive supply of fuel to do this and it can only be sustained for a limited period before you run out.

  3. Place you city into the inside of a spinning structure giving it acceleration by virtue of the fact that its velocity is constantly changing.

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