How did people in the Star Wars galaxy handle travelling to planets with different gravity?

Question

We see people travel to different planets of various sizes, but nothing to show the gravitational differences? In legends, there are comments about how the increased gravity on the trooper academy on Carida has led to stronger troops, but not elsewhere.

In canon, do they show or talk about how people handle going to places where gravity is different than their 'normal' environment?

Not that I'm aware of, but of course I could be totally wrong! — , Mar 08 '19 at 21:45
Almost all of the planets seen in the movies (Coruscant, Naboo, Tatoine, Jakku etc) seem very Earth-like, so I guess gravity is the same. Not sure about Legends though. — Hans Olo, Mar 08 '19 at 22:22
Star Wars physics doesn't really seem to do gravity. For example, see Concord Dawn. Or perhaps gravity is Aristotelian rather than Newtonian, or something like that. — Harry Johnston, Mar 08 '19 at 23:14
I'd imagine they do what most travelers do when they're force to go to a strange place, they feel crappy for a bit and then get used to it eventually — Valorum, Mar 08 '19 at 23:25
I've tended to assume that there are so many zillions of habitable, Earthlike planets in the Star Wars galaxy that human colonists can afford to be very choosy. If a planet's surface gravity is, let's say, less than 0.80g or more than 1.20g, maybe the human explorers just say, "Heck with it, we'll leave this one alone, and some species whose native environment is a lot closer to local conditions can colonize this newly-discovered world instead! Let's move on to the next possibility on our list!" But I have no "canonical support" for that personal hypothesis. — Lorendiac, Mar 09 '19 at 05:30
@Lorendiac That makes sense, but at the same time, if those people are in the Republic, then they'd have to find a way to handle being on Coruscant's gravity. — CBredlow, Mar 12 '19 at 04:54
"As his next target, Kyp would challenge the Imperial military training center on Carida. The military planet was a largish world with high gravity to toughen the muscles of potential stormtroopers. Its untamed land masses provided an appropriate range of training environments: arctic wastelands, trackless rain forests, splintered mountain crags, and searing desert hardpan crawling with venomous multilegged reptiles. - Jedi Academy #1, Champions of the Force — Valorum, Sep 19 '23 at 18:42
This is related to https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/24885/safety-railings-in-the-star-wars-universe — blueberryfields, Sep 19 '23 at 19:16
Also related to https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/112709/why-do-people-keep-getting-knocked-off-of-steep-slopes-in-star-wars/112711#112711 — blueberryfields, Sep 19 '23 at 19:17
@blueberryfields I don't think they are related at all. This one is about adapting to the gravity of different planets, those are about safety measures (or lack thereof). — Andres F., Oct 08 '23 at 18:37

score 4 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 08 '23 at 01:39

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The tech in the Star Wars universe is heavily based on gravity manipulation (the visual dictionary is a good source for this). Repulsorlifts are a good example. The dorsal and ventral guns on the Millennium Falcon as well.

It's quite possible everyone wears a gravity manipulation belt when on a planet with significantly higher gravity.

edited Oct 08 '23 at 01:39

Giacomo1968

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answered Mar 08 '19 at 23:32

Scott Whitlock

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Other people have also wondered the same thing: Why is gravity the same on every planet? – Scott Whitlock Mar 09 '19 at 00:19
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Any sources on the existence of such belts? – Mixxiphoid Mar 09 '19 at 08:49
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@Mixxiphoid - not yet, but there does seem to be evidence of gravity manipulation on a moon/planet level. Starkiller Base, for instance, doesn't make sense without gravity manipulation on a planetary scale. Perhaps all inhabited moons and planets are terraformed including gravity manipulation. – Scott Whitlock Mar 09 '19 at 09:38
Gravity manipulation belts are an important enough scifi concept that they would have been mentioned somewhere, especially if use was widespread. So I think they are not in use in Star Wars. – Andres F. Oct 08 '23 at 18:40

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 08 '23 at 02:46

Canon

In The Legends of Luke Skywalker, Luke and a scientist visit an asteroid with low gravity. They move around with some difficulty.

Gravity on the asteroid was light but sufficient to keep us securely rooted to the surface. Gingerly, we hop-walked to the cave, whose mouth was smoothly polished, as though it had been carved out by a river. I was baffled by the unusual geologic feature. An asteroid that small couldn’t have had flowing water.

In the novel Ahsoka, we learn that people who live and work in low gravity environments often struggle with their breathing, which probably explains why we don't really see many low-gee worlds.

All that fuss for a plant. Just a simple plant that could be processed into a nutritional supplement that allowed people working in low gravity to process oxygen more efficiently. He couldn’t imagine it was worth the trouble the Empire had gone to in order to procure it.

How did people in the Star Wars galaxy handle travelling to planets with different gravity?

2 Answers2

Canon