The Expanse (TV show on Syfy)

[WalrusFist]

Just watched the first episode, and would like to recommend it to everyone here.

You can watch it at http://www.syfy.com/theexpanse/videos/101-dulcinea
Use a VPN if you are outside the US.

This short story helps set up the politics/tech of the world http://www.syfy.com/theexpanse/drive/

It's based on books written by James S.A. Corey http://www.jamessacorey.com

[Naiba]

So many Gatling-guns. Why do people insist that they'd be a good thing to use in space?

Some nice looking ships with some very silly looking tech in that universe. I don't get it. Why would anyone ever want a see-through screen or display other than when it was switched off or needed to show something behind it at that specific time?

[WalrusFist]

Better cooling?

[Naiba]

I'll let you keep wondering why rotary air-cooled weapons would be a silly thing to be using in space then.

[WalrusFist]

Duh, obviously not air cooled lol. Conduction and radiation.

[Naiba]

And this means it needs to spin around in a circle because...?

[Arkenbrien]

Because it's cool?

[Naiba]

Quad-cannons are also cool!

[Lomsor]

To spread out the radiation spectrum of the barrels by Doppler shift of course! By rotating them the radiation of the barrels is shifted slightly, superimposing with the radiation from just before and cancelling each other out.

Honestly though, I probably could design a water-cooled rotating barrel gun that works in space. If it should be fancy we could make the casing out of transparent aluminium so it looks like a fancy air-cooled version.

[Arkenbrien]

OH YES! Those are cooler.

However, if gatling guns sound right, they're almost as cool.

I want to hear nothing but the

BRRRRRRRRRRT

of my gatling guns. In ED they sound like a 4 year old sticking her tongue out and going pbthpthpth.

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How about a compromise: Quad-Gatling-Cannons?

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I probably could design a water-cooled rotating barrel gun

I thought up a design right now that would work.

MSP Skills, ACTIVATE!!!

[Naiba]

You could get your BRRRRRRRRRRT with regular cannon so long as you could feed them ammo fast enough and had a fast enough firing mechanism to cope. Maybe a flexible pneumatic feed system and laser-ignition? Will think on this further.

Funny thing is about being picky: With today's tech to look to, lasers are the only viable weapons for space combat. End of story. The problem with that is they won't ever miss and can't be seen other than on the spot they damage (and by them heating any clouds of gas/debris they throw out,) so that's no fun for most people. It's just that Gatling weapons are particularly pointless that peeves me.

[Lomsor]

Hmmm ... hrrngss ... oh ....

DEJA'VU powers activate!

Heat ... where do you put all that excess heat energy? 99.999% efficient LASERs?

[Naiba]

caution. Hot. Jettison after use?

[Arkenbrien]

Patent pending.

Funny thing is about being picky: With today's tech to look to, lasers are the only viable weapons for space combat. End of story. The problem with that is they won't ever miss and can't be seen other than on the spot they damage (and by them heating any clouds of gas/debris they throw out,) so that's no fun for most people. It's just that Gatling weapons are particularly pointless that peeves me.

Gatling guns are used to destroy the super-thermal-resistant super-cooled mirrors put on a ship for 'armour'. Also, those mirrors change can change the color of the reflective material, which lessens the effect of the laser. Which also means that space battles would look like disco parties.

[Naiba]

Bulletholeinator™

I'll see you in court, Arkenbrien.

[Arkenbrien]

You know, stuff like this is deserving of it's own thread. Just for lols.

[ThornEel]

Reading the books, and enjoying them so far.
The show looks fantastic at first glance, now to find a working proxy...

Between this and the Martian, looks like Hard-SF may finally start to get its rightful place on screen?
(The Expanse is not the hardest, but still enough to cut steel - so hard enough)

edit: So since when is SyFy making shows that are so good?

[daiceman]

The Expanse series starts out hard and starts to get soft as the series progresses.

Minor spoiler:

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Highly advanced alien technology starts to get heavily involved later on

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[Red_Syns]

I've never understood the argument against a Gatling gun. Find me a 20mm cannon that can fire at 4500 rounds per minute that isn't a Gatling design (let's assume that we're excluding the expendable bullet box). For reference, CIWS is such a Gatling design that can attain that rate of fire. It has six barrels in a small area, meaning it can fire six times the rounds before needing cooling.

Of course, ballistic rounds are silly at any significant range, but so are piloted craft.

[JonnyRedHed]

Yes I've been waiting for this show to air. Am going to save up all the episodes in 1080p and watch them back to back after the last one airs.