The Expanse and its compatibility with OA

[QwertyYerty]

I just watched the first 3 episodes of "The Expanse", and it seems super realistic to me.  Do y'all think the setting in The Expanse (200 years from now) and the setting in Orion's arm in 247 a.t. are mostly compatible?

I'm mostly asking this from people who have actually watched part of the show, but I don't want to say too much since I don't want to spoil it.

Here are the basics:

Earth unified under U.N.

Mars is independent 

Ceres is a U.N. protectorate.  It is also pressurized, though I haven't seen any mention of genetic engineering. The people there have such weak bodies due to microgravity that they can 1 G is literally tortre for them.

Ships harvest ice from Saturn's rings.  The belt also harvests ice and other material but a lot of it goes to Luna and Mars (and Earth apparently, though that only makes sense if its a rare earth metal).

Earth and Mars have a cold war stance towards each other.

Wiki page for The Expanse below if you want more details. It think its an awesome series.  I checked out the page and it is spoiler free. 


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Expanse_(TV_series)

[QwertyYerty]

Our family started watching the seris on Amazon prime, I don't think its on Netflix.

[QwertyYerty]

It's on the SyFy channel. Its official page is below. You looks like you can see the episodes on it.

http://www.syfy.com/theexpanse

[Drashner1]

I haven't really seen much of the show - for some reason the bits I've seen just haven't grabbed my attention.

That said, my sense is that OA's depiction of the Solar System 200 or so years into the future is more technologically advanced than what the expanse depicts. We have human equivalent AI, advanced genetic engineering, space elevators on Luna and Mars and being built or soon to be built on Earth. Also, Mars is being terraformed and the Outer System gas giants are seeing moons being colonized and bubblehabs built.

The idea of the UN ruling the entire Earth is an old SF trope (older than me by a good bit), but isn't used in OA. Martian and spacer relations with Earth fluctuate a good bit in OA, from good to open warfare.

None of this is a knock against the Expanse - I agree it seems to be a pretty good hard SF show - although the idea of people being so adapted to low G without any other effects (likely negative) seems iffy without massive gengineering. But it's using a somewhat different set of starting assumptions than we do so the future it depicts is a bit different.

My 2c worth,

Todd

[stevebowers]

What is the status of Ceres in The Expanse? I've heard conflicting reports.

[Rynn]

I'm a big fan of the show. Started watching it just before the second series aired a month or so ago. The first series is on the UK netflix, it's a little bit clunky in terms of dialogue and acting but very few SF tv shows hit the ground running. The visuals and aesthetic is really good though and a few of the characters are especially interesting.

The Expanse world is very different to OA though. Most of the technology in the Expanse is less advanced; there's no significant AI, robotics or genetic engineering. By 2200 in OA there were a few groups that were diverged enough to be counted as different species, as well as vecs and a small number of AI. Going the other way two big things that the Expanse has that 2200 OA doesn't are people and super-rockets. At it's peak Earth in OA has 22 billion people, and that's not until right before the technocalypse. Mars colonisation has only been going on for 80 years at that point and probably has barely enough people to make a city yet. In the Expanse Earth has 30 billion people and the Martian Congressional Republic has 9 billion.

As for the super-rockets travel around the OA solar system was mostly by cycler with a growing but primitive magbeam network allowing for very low acceleration brachistochrone transfers. In the Expanse a Martian scientist stumbled across a previously thought-to-be-impossible type of fusion drive that allows for multi-G accelerations for weeks on end.

One point regarding the low-G: I think the show deserves a lot of praise for even tackling the issue. I realise it's a book adaptation but they must have put a lot of money in to have so many scenes where people are floating. They do use magnetic shoes for the most part but it takes a good wack at it. The casting and make up has even done a good job of making a lot of Belters look unhealthy, usually tall with spindly limbs.

[Rynn]

What is the status of Ceres in The Expanse? I've heard conflicting reports.

It's the most populated/developed part of the asteroid belt. It's de facto owned by Earth whose companies maintain order and siphon off resources. It's already pretty depleted, most notably in ice which the Martiansains stripped off some time before for their terraforming project. Within ceres there are several rotating levels (I can't remember if they rotate independently or if the place has been given a spin) for a low artificial gravity. The native Belters are an oppressed class who are kept in control by water rationing and the conditions they live in range from cramped to crap.

[stevebowers]

Within Ceres there are several rotating levels (I can't remember if they rotate independently or if the place has been given a spin) for a low artificial gravity.

This is the aspect I am interested in. The natural gravity of Ceres is 0.029 gees, less than a thirtieth of Earth's gravity; this is very low. You could build rotating rings on or below the surface of this dwarf planet, and create an outwards gravity value that counteracts this minimal attraction; or you could mount horizontal rings ('tracked centrifuges') on the surface to create sideways gravity, although having a thirtieth of a gee pulling you down/ sideways all the time would be inconvenient.


I'm not convinced that the makers of the Expanse have properly defined the rotation regime in these habitats - although the concept art looks good.

[Rynn]

Looked it up on the Expanse wiki, Ceres was spun up at some point to produce 0.3gs of centrifugal force:
http://expanse.wikia.com/wiki/Ceres

There are maps of the tunnels in which people live. In some of the places in the show the horizon is depicted as curving upwards (can't remember if that's ceres or another station) but they get round having to do that by rarely having the camera face that direction. To get around the asteroid there is a network of tunnels with rails that passenger carriages move through, these have stylised maps (similar to any RL metro) of the different levels. They do include the coriolis effect quite a lot too, particularly on the upper levels (the ones closer to the core). In the first episode a character pours a drink with the bottle being quite some distance from the glass:

   

[stevebowers]

You couldn't obtain artificial gravity by spinning Ceres as a whole; it doesn't have enough intrinsic strength, and would fall apart, after deforming significantly (like Haumea). The coriolis effect is good, though.