The Rocket Science of 'The Expanse'

The Expanse is a TV show based upon a series of books by James S. A. Corey. It's won a great deal of praise for its 'gritty realism', portraying life in the solar system 300 years from now. I got a lot of questions about how realistic the spacecraft were in the show, whether physics allowed for engines with the performance demonstrated by the spacecraft, so let's do the math.

TV Show Website

Many of the numbers required to compute performance were taken from this short story.

And finally, check out the Atomic Rockets website for a deep dive into the analysis of Sci-Fi technology

[reddeadrazor]

"Accelerating @ 7G's for a period of 37 hours..."
Scott Manley: "Fly safe!"

[timothymclean]

"The rocket science of a Syfy show? Oh, this is gonna be good."
"The science in this show is actually relatively good, aside from one plot-mandated miracle technology. And even that is kinda close to some vaguely-plausible technology currently in the very early prototype stages (aside from heat issues)."
"...Well, I'll be darned."

[tech]

I stumbled on Expanse a couple months ago. Binged every episode.

[ineinerbank]

from what i got from the books, 1/3 g is the preferred cruising accel in the expanse, as it is comfortable to martians and earthers, and belters are often very used to it (seeing ceres in the books provides spin gravity of a third g on its outer levels). also it is mentioned, i think, that during long haul missions they alternate between acceleration and coasting at zero g and using mag boots.

[Zanzubaa]

I do love the Expanse. It is realistic 'enough' ya know. With the ships doing things like turning retrograde to de-accelerate. Really nice touches like 'belters' having their own unique sounding accents. It kind of reminds me of Babylon 5 crossed with Galactica.

[MyUnclejay]

Ironically, I work on the vfx for the series...the name of my studio? Rocket Science Visual Effects....

[CptFantabulous]

I recall reading in the back of the first or second Novel that the writers(since it is actually two people under a pen name) talked about how the drives actually work. Rather they said that it didn't matter how they actually work since that doesn't add anything to the story. Which is kind of true since the only time they talk about them in the books in any detail is when something has gone wrong with them.

I recall in one book they mention the ship dumping its core to avoid melting down.

[Kanglar]

How to stay sober: Drink every time Scott blinks.

[Allcozeltser]

If I remember correctly, books stated that Epstain drive was an improvement on a "Fusion torch" drive.

[ExtremeCostumes]

Helium 3 is unbelievably abundant, just not on the Earth. Since they have explored the solar system, clearly they have access.

[TiagoNugentComposer]

In season 4 they show the inside of the fusion reactor. It is an inertial confinement reactor.

[mikvance]

Atomic Rockets is an incredible site I've used for years now. Crummy navigation and odd organization buy really thoughtful explanations of technology advantages, limits and alternatives.

[Aleksandarix]

Fiction or not, The Expanse gives us the right blend of sci-fi and realism to actually believe this could be a future of space travel that we may one day expect! I love this show for that, and know very well no show will ever be truly realistic - because then we'd have nothing.

[alistairthomson]

Picture yourself as an 1835 engineer trying to explain how someone in the year 2017 would 'drive' from New York to LA in under two days. You'd be talking big steam engines, most efficient routes to minimise rail gradients, most efficient coal and best refuelng and watering schedules. AND being so far off the actuality ...

[skylarking]

In The Expanse, it's shown and described that the attitude control thrusters run on steam piped from the engine room. To me this suggests a fusion plant that in turn heats water (derived locally from harvested asteroidal ice) to ultrahot steam to get a blend of relatively high Specific Impulse coupled to high thrust.

[danielsancarter]

is it one continuous g? I always figured it was maybe like a quarter g. since belters and Martians have no problem with it, and if it was one g it'd just be constant gravity torture

[lambree]

the expanse is a very good show, excited for next season

[Kaodusanya]

i think your intro is actually what keeps me coming back its so catchy. Different from any other youtube channel.

[Nlav]

I thank Scott Manley for introducing me to the show. The 4th season was already out when I watched this video and now I am totally hooked on the show. I am currently waiting for my friend who lives in UK to get me the books. I have never read any novel but I am gonna give this one a try.

[illustriouschin]

I loved most of the books in the series and was very glad to discover the creators of the show making an effort to do justice to the source material.