Quote from: sanman on 05/25/2018 06:33 amYes, the story has certainly crossed a threshold or inflection point with the new situation.What is the meaning or significance of that final scene?I could see several possibilities.Is there a "spoiler policy" on this or the entertainment threads? Personally I just avoid the thread until I watch the episode and I think it would be really interesting to discuss some of the motivations of the various characters and the proto-molecule.
Yes, the story has certainly crossed a threshold or inflection point with the new situation.What is the meaning or significance of that final scene?
For anyone still on the fence about reading the books, I highly recommend them.
The idea of using steam as propulsion on the ships in the expanse (the Tea Kettles) rather than a cold gas thruster or even a chemical rocket engine is interesting. In their world, they have essentially unlimited access to heat energy from their reactors, so can water being converted to super heated steam have better ISP than even compressed nitrogen, much less a reaction engine? I'm pretty sure the physics of them lifting off of planetary bodies with their steam engines doesn't hold water (I'm sorry) but I can forgive that one as an unimportant detail that doesn't even come up in the first book. I'm curious about the physics though. Has anyone done any math on their super heated steam engine?EDIT: Water expanding to steam can have a 1:1600 expansion ratio and steam engines have run with as much as 1500 PSI / 10.34MPa. Nitrogen has a 1:696 expansion ratio. So, it seems that with an unlimited heat source and a way to transfer it to water extremely quickly, it could have better ISP than cold gas thrusters and perhaps even better than a Merlin engine (chamber pressure 1410 psi / 9.7MPa). I'm sure there is more to it than these numbers but that seems like pretty shocking performance potential.
zero g experience...he goes on to explain that they can't operate in zero g because blood doesn't settle and won't allow surgery to be successful...kind of implied that those njured requiring surgery were likely to die.....or something to that effect...
Amazing season finale, very glad that this did not mark the end of the show.
.My question is, is this right .?...how would a crew on their way to Mars deal with an injured astronaut requiring surgery in zero g?