Quote from: Lars-J on 01/28/2015 07:33 pmQuote from: Lampyridae on 01/28/2015 06:52 amI started reading the first book, and it all went pretty well until I got to the bit about Ceres. Which the books says is 250km in diameter and has been spun up to provide 0.3g for its six million inhabitants... even if it's not a typo and the excess mass has been stripped off, it's still badly threatening to my suspension of disbelief.I thought it was just a massive habitation wheel built into Ceres that was rotating, and not the entire Ceres (how would they stop it from falling apart??), but my memory may be faulty.I thought that at first, but I re-read bits of it, thinking "that can't be right." But that's exactly what is written. And yes, it would utterly disintegrate - the rotational energy is a couple of orders of magnitude above the binding energy.I'm enjoying the characters and the plot but mistakes like that make it quite painful. I don't think the TV series will address any of these.
Quote from: Lampyridae on 01/28/2015 06:52 amI started reading the first book, and it all went pretty well until I got to the bit about Ceres. Which the books says is 250km in diameter and has been spun up to provide 0.3g for its six million inhabitants... even if it's not a typo and the excess mass has been stripped off, it's still badly threatening to my suspension of disbelief.I thought it was just a massive habitation wheel built into Ceres that was rotating, and not the entire Ceres (how would they stop it from falling apart??), but my memory may be faulty.
I started reading the first book, and it all went pretty well until I got to the bit about Ceres. Which the books says is 250km in diameter and has been spun up to provide 0.3g for its six million inhabitants... even if it's not a typo and the excess mass has been stripped off, it's still badly threatening to my suspension of disbelief.
It was mentioned by one character in the first episode that "all" of the ice on Ceres has been mined by Earth and Mars for their uses... So I guess that would be an explanation for why it's smaller...?I'm getting a general impression of, in spite of a lot of hard science stuff, a lot of numbers and notions being pulled out of someplace dark Which is a shame.I wonder how plausible a space elevator on Ceres would be, with a space station for a counterweight, experiencing usable centrifugal force as a result (unless I'm mistaken as to the dynamics... wouldn't the counterweight of a space elevator experience acceleration outward?)
I enjoyed seeing the hard science fiction elements of it on a TV show for once, but couldn't find myself getting into the plot or characters very much.
I really do hope this series continues but considering that I know the plot line I can't imagine it will. At some point the viewers will say "wtf? This is about SPOILERS, I thought it was about space?!" I mean, SPOILERS are pretty popular, but SPOILERS in space? Why? It was fine in a three part sci-fi serial with low circulation.. it wasn't even all that remarkable in that genre, but it seems like lazy writing for tv. Here's hoping they do it with finesse.
Quote from: NovaSilisko on 11/25/2015 05:30 pmI enjoyed seeing the hard science fiction elements of it on a TV show for once, but couldn't find myself getting into the plot or characters very much.The characters are a bit clichéd, washed-up detective and hard-boiled space miners, but I actually liked the plot so far.Quote from: QuantumG on 11/27/2015 12:37 amI really do hope this series continues but considering that I know the plot line I can't imagine it will. At some point the viewers will say "wtf? This is about SPOILERS, I thought it was about space?!" I mean, SPOILERS are pretty popular, but SPOILERS in space? Why? It was fine in a three part sci-fi serial with low circulation.. it wasn't even all that remarkable in that genre, but it seems like lazy writing for tv. Here's hoping they do it with finesse.I hope its not zombies
I don't see us reaching that scale in 200 years but I dont claim to know what we will be capable of in 50 either. They have torch drives so they are not pretending to be diamond hard SF. Exponential growth could get us to that scale and beyond at some point.
Certainly better than almost all SF TV shows.
Quote from: RonM on 11/27/2015 04:56 pm Certainly better than almost all SF TV shows.I'll agree with that. I'll certainly be keeping track of the series, even if I haven't found the plot super compelling (yet!)
2nd (and 3rd and 4th) episodes are out, and are a lot of fun.
Renewed for a second season.http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/2015/12/31/the-expanse-renewed-for-second-season-on-syfy/