Rich assholes don’t want to drink reprocessed water maybe?
From what I can tell Mars and Earth are full of said rich assholes.
Then again there’s an absolutely silly amount of water ice on even Ceres, way more than enough to satisfy rich idiots that want “pure space water deluxe”
So, what is water used for?
If you don’t believe me, look at those companies that want to start exploiting space resources. The one think they absolutely prioritize, before iron, before platinium, before Helium-3, is water. There are very good reasons for that.
Or look at this page and search for the word “water”.
So it’s like space oil, but that you also need to survive.
Yeah… no.
Seriously, such high-performing torch engines are borderline magical. We currently have no drive both that powerful and efficient imagined - and we imagined turning the central galactic black hole into a power station, and how we would do it.
The only thing we have that is remotely in those performances is a high-end antimatter engine, and they are using plain hydrogen.
Not to mention the thing is many orders of magnitude more efficient that anything we can devise, given the absence of oversized heat radiators.
Sure, pure, optimal fusion sounds a lot on paper, but that’s before you realize how vast space is - and how much an utopian 10% loss in waste heat means in necessary radiator size to not melt the hull.
Not dissing on the show here, mind you - it does a good enough job elsewhere to be more than fine. But we’d better be careful with those assumptions born out of (otherwise great) Star Wars or Star Trek space fantasy on how space really works.
And that manoeuvre was actually exactly what a real spaceship would have done (assuming a real spaceship would have a magical torch drive, of course). They’re not stopping, they’re turning around and changing course (at several g) to intercept and match an object on a wildly different vector.
They follow the events, what kind of people the characters are and what the world is like. For me, those are the main elements, so as long as they are kept and they don’t screw the presentation, it’s faithful enough.
We’ll see how it holds up with time, though.
I may end up doing like you in the end, better watch it at our own pace.
This content is not available in your location.
Yeah, US only for now because companies still think international licensing agreements with air-dates separated by months works as a viable marketing strategy these days.
Have you tried a VPN, as suggested in the OP? It worked for me.
I gave in and watched the first 4 episodes of The Expanse the other day. I really enjoyed them, and you can see the polish is there. And so it should be for the many millions per episode it costs.
I particularly liked the use of the various types of gravity as a story element, spin, acceleration etc. For example when the cop pours a drink on the belt station which has spin gravity you see the sideways motion and then gravity acting at the same time. Actually makes you think about where they are and the forces the body has to deal with. I am very much hooked and this might be the best thing since Battlestar for me. Dark matter is good, but The Expanse is really good. Just my kind of SciFi.
The thing I like most about this show is that it avoids a lot of annoying TV Tropes. For example if you watch a show and an airplane hull gets breached you know that someone is getting sucked out of that hole. Here they simply get on with the job of patching it.
I felt like I was at a slight advantage having already read the book. It seems like it would be hard to follow for people fresh to the story. Leviathan Wakes ties up a lot of its strings at the end of the book so it works well as a standalone read. But now I am thinking that I might read the second book in the series as well.
The fifth episode will be broadcast today and I’m looking forward to it.
I have all the audio books downloaded and novellas inc the 2015 one, all ready to go. But I’ve not yet listened to them. I’ll wait until I’ve seen all 13 season 1 episodes and then listen to ‘The Chrun’ and Leviathan Wakes.
And try and resit the urge to watch ep5-13 until they have all aired and I can watch them all back to back.
I really enjoy this show. It’s about time I got a science fiction TV series that doesn’t pander to all the idiots out there that think rocket engines on every surface is a requirement. Or that ‘exotic’ means bone appliance on forehead or nose. One that doesn’t fill me with made up, nonsensical, words. I’m not totally at peace with the casting choices but pretty happy over all.
I really enjoy the world building they have done. They have made the attempt to give us an idea of the different languages and cultures without letting it bog down the story. It would be fascinating to see something of Mars but I suspect that is coming.
As for the spaceships. Far superior to almost anything I’ve seen in other TV shows, movies, video games, or a certain prototype. we are all clamoring for. I’ve been spending years trying to get people to accept the PEN-1S, design criteria on this forum, on the previous forum, on IRC, without luck.
For the ‘Torpedoes’, I really like how they handled the missiles in flight. In Episode 7(?), they show a missile make a maneuver correction to a different heading, after being launched. None of that insipidly stupid, aiming at the bad guy and shooting crap that everyone uses.
Physics on the other hand is merely, meh. The TV show still tends to treat objects as if there is a fixed coordinate. or that orbits only apply to certain objects. but I think the books make the same mistake at least in part. We have to accept a relatively low budget is going to prevent the proper representation of microgravity but I’m willing to accept the limitations. at least they make the nod to it. One thing that could be mentioned more often is the passage of time to get places.
I don’t much care for the ShakyCam™ on exterior shots. I didn’t much like it for Battlestar Galactica either. I can understand its use to convey a certain feeling of adrenaline as well as to hide the visual faults of CGI. but I still prefer long beauty shots. with sweeping establishment shots.
As far as the Gatling Gun. Everyone that has bad mouthed it is right. What’s more, a gun in space is not really the best idea anyway. I did enjoy the use of reaction control system to counter the recoil (I assume). but for all you folks arguing about it. the best weapon to use would be a large caliber, recoilless cannon. Germany has messed around with autoloading recoilless cannon. You don’t need to fire 4000 rounds of 20mm bullets, if you have a 40-60mm round, full of a dozen 20mm sub-munitions. Curiously just like an Oerlikon 35mm cannon revolver used today.
I hope that this show can build on audience number and be renewed. It’s a really fun series of books and so far, I enjoy how the series reflects the books. I’m glad to have seen the quality that they have shown in the episodes so far and can’t wait to see how how they handle the more complex story as it progresses.
Needs moar Space-whales.
I think the show goes as far as it can with a mainstream audience with the way it uses gravity as a story element to advance certain scenes. Spin gravity etc when pouring fluid into a glass. Otherwise things get too complicated, not that I wouldn’t love more complexity.
For now I’m saving up episodes 5-13 to watch them back to when when season one is done. I sure hope it gets an early renew, which is always a good sign of network confidence in the show. I think it deserves an early renew.
Ah, well that is jolly good news. An early renew. Ta.
Just finished ep 5-10, really enjoying it so far. Season 2 has 13 eps.
I’m wondering whether to listen to the first audio book and short stories now this first season has aired.
Am looking forward to season 2.
Has to be the best space sci-fi on TV at the moment, although pickings are slim these days for space sci-fi.
‘Which Side Are You On’: Syfy’s ‘The Expanse’ Raises the Stakes in Season 2 - space.com
The Rocinante sheds its gas-hauler disguise in the final episode of “The Expanse” Season 1. The crew will have to grapple with a solar system in turmoil in Season 2.
Credit: Syfy
I recently picked up the book and found it goes farther than the first season so I’m looking forward to see how they show what happens. It’s some pretty cool stuff! Can’t wait to start reading the second one.
Yeah, I’ve since also read the books. I’m really looking forward to the show, the space battles were incredible! 
If fear this is gonna be the show that never got the chance to show how good it is by being on a shit network.
It’s made it onto Netflix in the UK, so that might save it
I loved this show. Maybe a little too cerebral for some audiences. Make your audience feel stupid and they won’t like the show. All this does is lead to further dumb shows being made.
Praying this won’t be another Firefly…
