A point I missed putting in is that the seats in the Rocinante lean back to change the acceleration from vertical to horizontal. Another cool attention to detail!

1/3 G is the default speed for pretty much everything in the Expanse unless there is a specific need for more, especially if there are Belters on board. All the spin stations like Tycho and The Behemoth, AKA Medina, I plus all the asteroids they’ve spun to make habitable are spun to 1/3 g.

The Expanse also makes use of magnetic boots for their crew when they are not moving or are in orbit to conserve fuel. I thought that was brilliant.

Belters are used to noticably less than 1g, so the behemoth would need to spin even less fast. Big thumbs up for the Mass Effect tune

"It's possible to even survive a short burst of 46 g's of horizontal acceleration" Alex Kamal would like to have a word with you

I love the hard science fiction of the Expanse. I love Star Trek, but the force fields & ray beams get old after awhile. I think that’s why I loved Battlestar Galactica & Firefly so much, both who used bullets instead of light beams for weapons. I gave a pass at their respective gravity solutions, as they were the best SciFi in their respective eras, but The Expanse exceeds both!

From someone who has experienced a trainer used for fighter pilots that spins you in circles while you are rotated to simulate pulling Gs in a jet 9gs positively it’s hard to keep aware as your vision narrows. This* is uncomfortable but manageable but negative Gs hurt like hell or you red out as the blood vessels in your eyes burst. This is why fighter pilots pull Gs rather than push them. I think you described these affects very well!

One problem I have with the design of ships in the expanse is that the bridge is typically on the "top" of the ship, or the point furthest away from the engine. With the command crew's feet pointed towards the center of mass rapid rotational maneuvers would throw the crew into the walls and ceiling. It would be way better to have the bridge as close to the center of gravity as possible to minimize the effects of rotating the ship on the crew.

Loved the practicality of the ships in the expanse. Even how railguns zipped their ballistic rounds right through ships and the crews wore space suits going into battle and also depressurised the ships when fighting. I would love to see more near-future sci-fi. The Martian is one of favourite films ever. Good solid science porn with engaging characters thrown in. Enjoyable video by the way. 👍

The Expanse has a great feeling of authenticity about it. Have recently been rewatching the whole series again. Definitely my favorite sci fi show. Really enjoyed your video.

"rocket canal house" will be my next home purchase

I think the rotating seat assembly in the Razorback is called a gimbal, a roll cage is usually an external safty structure outside of vehicles, but that is just how I understand it.

Babylon5 also accomodated the gravity and acceleration issues very well too with fighter design, rotational sections and so on.

Who noticed Mass Effect theme in background ?

Also, don't forget the "Y Que" slingshot craft piloted by Maneo. It had a very minimal drive and relied on directional thrusters. Also, typically ships in the expanse only fly at 1/3g to make it easier on the belter crews and conserve reaction mass. Otherwise, this is a fantastic video I will be sharing with new fans of the show to help explain why they don't have "gravity plating" and "inertial dampers..."

Hitting me with that mass effect music at the end. How dare you

Question for you: do you ever get the slight impression that the writers treat the solar system as a neat line of planets like in a one of those Solar System wall posters? Reason for asking is really just the notion of 'outer planets' as a distinct region; there will be times when, say, Earth is closer to Ceres Station than Ceres is to Ganymede, when Ganymede, along with Jupiter, is the other side of the sun from Ceres. I just occasionally (not all the time) get the impression that the 'outer system' is written in such a way as being clumped together, far away from Earth and Mars.

I'm really enjoying the channel. Thanks you. A couple of comments. 7:50 Nice radian dodge. Well done. The show doesn't talk much about this, but the ships often accelerate at much less than 1g. I believe spinning stations like Tycho and the Behemoth would likely be around 0.3g. It's part of the reason why Belters struggle in 1g environments for extended periods.

The Behmoth is probably too small for an interstellar trip, even in the show atmospheric leackage was mentioned as an issue. Also the Interior would have more levels to minimize puncture damage and create more surface area.

Really glad I found this channel! Really interesting facts presented in a comprehensive way. Also, Mass Effect’s “Vigil” is always a welcome sensation!

Blood to the head is called "red-out", not "black-out"

A spinning drum is a lot harder to engineer than you'd think, as the static section isn't anchored to anything so they'll both just end up spinning in opposite directions, you would need sets of thrusters permanently firing in counter directions on the two parts of the ship. It's easier to make ome like the endurance from interstaller where the whole thing just spins, but that also makes its near impossible to dock, as we saw.

Additionally, Star Trek ships also had inertial dampeners working in tandem with the gravitional plates to prevent people from being pushed against the back wall whenever the ship used thrust. Thus the forces exerted upon passengers of such ships work in both the X/Y axis AND the A/Z axis. So the ship can engage thrust at anytime allowing the passengers to walk upright simultaneously.

Great video. Babylon 5 also featured more realistic and functional ship design, at least for the Earth Alliance. Some ships had rotating sections and those that didn't had layouts similar in some ways to the Roci .

Compared to many other fiction films - The Exspanse - it’s done a little better, but there’s still a lot of film license.

Whoever thought out the physics of this show was a genius. great vid

The Expanse videos so far have been awesome, would love to see more!

Unless you're Earth or Mars military, 1G is almost unheard of in The Expanse. Nearly everything runs at 1/3rd of a G. Partly to conserve reaction mass, partly because that's the most that Belters can really tolerate. Most rocks have very little gravity to speak of. The books suggested the Behemoth / Medina Station spins at 1/10th of a G. The Mormons wanted 1G because they're Earthers, so that's what the ship was designed to do. However, the Belters had zero intention of making their new home spin at 1G. It'd rip their people apart. It meant massive modifications to the drainage systems because the station needs to grow food in the slow zone, but water doesn't drain as easily in the agricultural area at 1/10th of a G. Even a little bit of spin or thrust means you can use the toilet without embarrassment (or needing vacuum attachments) (or having to sanitise and deodorise the air intake filters if something goes wrong like the pilot makes an unexpected course correction). I'm of the firm opinion that the ISS (or its replacement) needs a spin section - but definitely not at 1G. Just enough for a few cabins for people to shower, eat, do other minor stuff, possibly even sleep (if there are health benefits in being under gravity for at least some of the time). The lower the G the smaller the radius can be with tolerable coriolis.

Got me with that Mass Effect tune! Mass Effect the best sci-fi video game and Expanse the best scif-fi tv series. A great duo.

I hear you with that Mass Effect music! Great video, as always!

The only thing that is missing in the spaceships in the expanse is radiators because especially with their fusion drives which is very hot, they must need that to function realistically

Job well done! Glad to see more ppl noticing and appreciating the gravity of work that went into building The Expanse universe. It’s an even better series of novels I certainly recommend

I love the music from Mass Effect used in this video - there are so many comparisons to draw between Mass Effect and The Expanse and I love it!

I'm a simple man... I saw EXPANSE in thumbnail and I clicked and subscribed

Discovered your channel recently and I am really enjoying it. Keep up the good work!

With the exception of the UN Navy, ships in The Expanse tend to operate at about .3gs (or the surface gravity of Mars).

I love the use of the Mass Effect soundtrack in the backgorund

That Mass Effect music at the end brings back memories...

This is so informative and we'll explained. I love the expanse and I love that I found this channel even more!

I'm one of those that occasionally pops in to see the station designs submitted to NASA's annual scholastic competition. All the orbital designs utilize centrifical force, but there was one I really liked for a loop ship. It's ring was segmented so that the sections could rotate based on the combination of spin AND engine thrust during it's boost, coast, and braking phases. I'm also surprised you did not mention Babylon 5. That was a show where you saw both near science solutions (the Earth Aliance ships, including B5 itself), and super sci (nearly everyone else).

What you have under 10k subs that's insane these videos are soo good

It's interesting when you consider both ST and the Expanse take place in approx the time frame The Expanse is roughly 250 years roughly 23rd century. Star trek is depending upon whether its ENT,TOS,TNG late 22nd to 24th, While I wish the ST technologies were real I feel the Expanse is going to be much much closer to the mark.

When you mentioned ships spinning for gravity, I’m surprised you didn’t mention Babylon 5, with it’s giant O’Neill Cylinder.

The Expanse way more scientific than most shows

wow, what a timing. I asked about this topic yesterday!

Ryan: "Ships of the imagination. Time will tell" Me: "This closing feels oddly very Sagan-y to me..." *Video ends with a clip from the original Cosmos documentary* Me: :'')

Love the channel man, keep up the great work!

Hey Dr. R R. Just discovered your channel. I’m blown away. Great explanation put into to easy to understand explanation for us common folks who luv science and sci-fi but don’t have the deep training in math and physics to figure these questions out. Thx for the channel and keep the vids coming mate.

I love watching these before the new episode each week. Cant wait for your channel to blow up

It's look like you forget to mention gravity juice that injected to the passenger when they accelerated or during high-g maneuvers.

New subscriber. Brilliant! I'll be working my way through your previous videos. Thank you! Keep. It up :)

Awesome video, it explains alot of things I was confused about while watching the show. I knew most times there was a purpose for something being filmed the way it was. But this cleared up many questions of the wierd ship designs and movements.

Loved the Mass Effect music at the end.

Ryan, the Earth ships in the early seasons of Babylon 5 had spinning sections and the station itself was somewhat like an O'Neill cylinder, rotating around its linear axis.

Really good Video... And the Mass Effect music at the end was the icing on the cake!

Great video! Really enjoyed. And so good to hear Mass Effect at the end :)

If only we’d had vids like this when I was trying to get my head around equations to do with gravity at school

So that’s why Alex died from stroke when trying to save Naomi. Blood attached the brain

I've been binging the Expanse and recently wondered why there was a roll cage design in the Razorback. I'm glad I clicked on your video! Not sure if you'll continue creating videos on ships, but I'd be interested in hearing you talk about Icarus II from Sunshine and the experimental engine from the Event Horizon which caused a rift in the space-time continuum!

This was very satisfying to watch and the science is cool. Love the expanse.

Actually in the Expanse 1/3 g seems to be standard rate of efficiency and gravity compromise.

I marvel about how people forget about the space shuttle when talks about reusable rockets.

Fun fact, the original Enterprise was modeled after the burner ring on an electric oven. Then, it was further refined by an Air Force veteran using aircraft logic. They also liked how the ship came with a saucer section like a flying saucer.

This video just brought you another subscriber. Thanks for your effort you put into it.

Of course there is this one thing that the Expanse universe completly ignores: heat

Perhaps one day as in DUNA. folding the space, traveling without movement ...

The Mass Effect music at the end was a great touch 👌👌

Thanks for the numbers. I've been looking for these ones.

I think it would have been helpful to spend a bit more time explaining the flip and deceleration at 1g gravity for the second half of a journey too.

You forgot to mention the magboots!

I like the way they flip in order to slow down.

Great video, and the nod to Carl Sagan at the end there was a beautiful touch.

Romain Grossgean experienced nearly 50 g s when he crashed , last year

Hi Dr Ryan. I've had an idea for a rocket engine based on a variation of the VASIMIR ion drive. If nitrogen were used as the reaction mass in the engine, then after being accelerated by the grid the nitrogen ions were neutralized and allowed to recombine into N2 wouldn't that chemical reaction add enough energy to the plasma to bring it close to Epstine Drive levels of efficiency? I'm assuming a fusion reactor driving the VASIMIR. I know it takes a LOT of energy to disassociate N2>2N but going from 2N to N2 is the basis of many hi-explosives. At least, this could allow practical single stage to orbit. It would be more efficient than a pure chemical engine and more powerful than an ion thruster. I'd love to hear any knowledgeable opinions out there. This idea has been knocking around inside my head for awhile now.

Big fan of the expanse here, I gotta say what draws me to the series is the attention to detail and realistic science behind most of the series.

Gravity is a hard mistress. One thing I don't like about the depiction though is that sometimes they'll flip a ship 180° and take off in a new direction lickity-split when all they would be doing is slowing their forward momentum. If you've been travelling at 1g for some time, it would take just as much to stop, forget about zooming back the way you came in seconds.

I like that you went into how The Expanse uses it's ship design to generate gravity, but would have like to have heard more about if the efficiency of an Epstein Drive would even be possible. I've seen several things about an Epstein not being possible issue with "Heat Problems", Reactor fuel vs reaction mass, the exhaust/drive ploom would be so enormous that it would destroy anything traveling nearby...etc. I assume alot of these issues are based on how a modern understanding of how a hypothetical nuclear engine would/could work, and that within the lore of the novels/show are the problems that Solomon Epstein was able to solve to create his fictious drive... but still would like to know if those are even solvable problems by what we understand about nuclear physics.

The biggest problem with Expanse ships is lack of radiators, which would be necessary for vehicles with such strong drives falling into the category of torchships. They are riding literal thermonuclear explosions, of which only part of the heat is leaving the ship with exhaust, the rest goes into the ship. Heat is a big concern for any spaceship design with advanced drive, and even our projects of vehicles with fusion drives much weaker than Expanse ones require giant radiators

very calm and precise dialogue. well done!

One of your best videos ever, ending it with that quote that Niel Degrassi Tyson got from Carl Sagan gave me CHILLS!!!

Couldn't you generate spin gravity with a long tether between two modules instead of having to build a giant ship?

I will never see the canal hous... i mean the Rocinante with the same eyes!

Hello Dr. Ridden! 🙂 Thank you for this educational, informative, and entertaining video! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 The Expanse is one of the best sci-fi shows since Babylon 5 and unlike the rest, provides a window into our future of becoming a spacefaring civilization. 👌🏻 I look forward to seeing more of your videos! You just earned a new subscriber and friend! 👍🏻

The Nuclear Fission Saltwater Engine designed by Robert Zubrin is a currently possible technology that basically gives a spaceship the same (or similar) efficiency as the Fusion drives from The Expanse. The problem with Zubrin's engine is that the exhaust spews deadly radiation. But as long as you don't point the exhaust at anything you care about most of the radiation is traveling at a speed that it will escape out of the Solar System. Definitely a space-only Spaceship. With this engine you could design spaceships that look exactly like the ones in The Expanse, and you will be able to maintain 1G of burn for hours on end (maybe even days).

Would you be able to deal with higher g's if you were submerged in a sort of big fishtank?

Never clicked a video so fast!

If you mentioned it, I missed where you addressed “the juice.” Also, the crew regularly wear mag boots on the Roci, so the acceleration is something less than sufficient to maintain pull in one direction.

A minor detail, but fighter pilots don't face forward because that's where most of the acceleration comes from. In fact, the most intense acceleration comes from maneuvering, which can be up to 9 gs depending on the jet and it's payload. Meanwhile, engines might give maybe 2 gs for short bursts at full power. In fact, if you look at some fighter cockpits closely you'll see the seat reclines significantly to give the pilot better g tolerances. Having the pilot laying flat would be the best, but would make flying the plane rather difficult.

I wish more sci-fi used real world science to its advantage. I can only think of Babylon 5 using realistic artificial gravity for Human ships and the station itself and Halo.

Great insight and video, thank you!

The first place, where gravity by constant acceleration was displayed was "the adventures of Tintin, to the moon" (1950) with an animated film made later, to be seen also here on youtube, minute 7:00 in the episode, the professor explains quite well, how this works; also the effects of acceleration, scarcity of oxygen and reduced gravity on the moon is discussed. Even magnetic boots and a nuclear propulsion were already in it. I was puzzled for decades, why Scifi shows kept ignoring that old masterpiece of SciFi :-) and then finally the Expanse came along! Great!

An excellent subject brilliantly presented bossmang! Everything about The Expanse was brilliant. It has supplanted Babylon 5 as the finest sci-fi series I have ever experienced. The plot, the production, the acting, the politics, the details, the gritty reality of surviving in space. Braking burn ffs!

Probably the most important reason, as far as TV shows and movies are concerned, is that spinning ships (or ships that are completely unrealistic) are far more visually interesting to general audiences than a canal-house vertical alignment.

Great video, I look forward to seeing what other content you create. I’m curious what your thoughts on weaponry in space, in the expanse they have what appears to be 20mm mini guns(they heat up very quick, I have seen them in action and barrels start to glow on the smaller ones after a few hindered rounds), would the vacuum of space stop the weapons from being able to cool through convection, or would the background temperature of space counter that. Could be an interesting video.

Thanks Dr Ridden. You spin such a wonderful tale of hope!

You can add one more thing to this. The writters of the show and the books had a long and meaningfull colaboration with actual NASA engineers about how everything works, what the current problems are and much much more.

Watching this right after watching the last episode of season 5. Perfect timing!!!.... Here comes the juice!!

When i first time saw ur channel i thought u have like 1M+ subs the video quality content bro then realise your subs not even 4k, your channel is so underrated you deserve more

2:24 "This canal-house idea is something I haven't really seen explored in science-fiction". I guess you never read the comics series "Tintin-destination moon" (French: Objectif Lune). It was written way back in 1953, and scientifically it was remarkably accurate, including the part where they actually explore the moon. The used rocket works according to the "Canal house" concept, and is also constructed as such. A "nuclear powered engine" continuously accelerates the craft at 1G, so that the travelers experience normal gravity. When they are half way, the craft reverses and starts to decelerate with 1G all the way to the moon. During the "reversal procedure", they are weightless as it should (and unfortunately, they also become weightless when Captain Haddock in a drunken stupor accidentally turns off the engine during flight). Considering this was written in 1953 even before Sputnik took to the skies, this is a remarkable realistic comic I can recommend! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destination_Moon_(comics)

love your channel. great information