The Expanse Season 3 Featurette | 'Space Warfare' | Rotten Tomatoes TV

Check out the new The Expanse Season 3 Featurette starring Cas Anvar! Let us know what you think in the comments below.
► Learn more about this show on Rotten Tomatoes: www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the...
US Air Date: April 11, 2018
Starring: Cas Anvar, Wes Chatham, Dominique Tipper
Network: SyFy
Synopsis: Picking up immediately following the emotional and suspenseful second season finale, the 13-episode third season finds Earth, Mars and The Belt at war, with each competing entity vying for control. Now, more than ever, the mission to unlock the secret of the protomolecule reaches an all-time high and every decision made could jeopardize the survival of the solar system.
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[@Snowy123]

'Speak quietly but carry a tungsten rod capable of moving a noticeable percentage of c' -Alex

[@pplesandoranges]

Those shots arrived in seconds. It takes light at least eight minutes to travel from the Sun to Earth and two of the platforms were further away than that.

[@Gala-yp8nx]

Only for the purposes of the show.

[@flyhigh6047]

thats why its called sci fi , no matter how realistic it try to be its still a fiction

[@admiralkoerner2737]

It took alot longer than a few seconds to get there, they just didn't show it. Can't have several hours of sitting around, would be boring for the show.

[@AsteaFrosty]

Weren't they between Earth & Mars?

[@RullyisJRM]

This was really cool. The Expanse is the most incredible, underrated show I've ever seen.

[@KermitTheArchitect]

after Galactica, say after galactica goddamnit.

[@AvNotasian]

@@KermitTheArchitect Galactica... The show where everyone is a cylon...

[@KermitTheArchitect]

@@AvNotasian only a cylon would speak like that. Shut up toaster.

[@Arch757]

@RullyisJRM, well, Expanse is not underrated show. Almost all fans like it.

[@krapto3467]

@@KermitTheArchitect Galactica isn't underrated or given less attention however, Galactica is getting the attention it deserves,The Expanse sadly isn't.

[@billtang79]

This is one of the best sci fi shows on screen now!

[@phdnk]

I can no longer go back and appreciate Star Treck after this level of realism.

[@orangelion03]

I'm inclined to opine that it is one of the best SciFi shows ever. Right up there with BSG v.2 and Babs5.

[@paraglide01]

Dont rule out Lost in Space.

[@orangelion03]

Referring to the re-boot, right? Have only watched the first episode but it did not engage me enough to binge. Couldn't get past the Will Robinson actor. I have to say, the visuals and effects look spectacular.

[@allyourmoney]

Nikolai Phodenko Just seeing a spaceship slow down without doing a flip & burn makes me cringe.

[@noranoxica]

That missile launch was honestly one of the most crushing things I've ever watched. Just something about it.

[@DecoyJayc]

Just one bomblet hit. Imagine everything hit: 5x10x20 = 1000 nukes of that yeild, my god

[@latch9781]

@@DecoyJayc That's why they're called planet busters

[@tsarbombawithinternetconne875]

@@DecoyJaycAnd the fact a single one was enough to exert an explosion that is large enough to see from space

[@tomitiustritus6672]

Are you shitting me? That blinding-turning-full-speed-passing-by-while-rotating-maneuver was exactly lined out in my head for years now! I kind of feel hyped and betrayed at the same time.

[@reviewchan9806]

That's a smokescreen maneuver, it's existed since the the dawn of deception.

[@phdnk]

UNN should have used 15 railguns on 5 MCRN missile platforms. This redundancy would have offset the risk of misfire.

[@phdnk]

moreover, multiple successive shrapnel fields would intercept attempted launch

[@brooklyn560]

Did they have 15?

[@illusiveman1613]

Nikolai Pohodenko these are giant superrailguns that probably cost trillions

[@lukashillebrand9670]

Two Questions though. #1 Do they have that many? #2 What are the costs of fireing those? They might just be to high to fire 15 of those simultainiusly.

[@gavinkemp7920]

that fairly unlikely. it not wise to bottle neck key defense systems like that. especially since the one mission of those rail guns is to take out those stealth ships or take out mcrn fleets. they should have had redundancy or invest the funds else where. on the other hand if their one criticism i have of this show is the weapon systems don't make sense. i'm glad they finally made fragmenting rail gun shell. why not have them for ship to ship battle.

[@R4Y2k]

That was one of the best moves in all scifi history. Absolutely incredible. No way Holden was just a regular UN recruit.

[@simplig1272]

in the book he is, he wasn't even in a commanding post if i recall correctly like in the series, but then again in the books there are no such detailed and varied combat scenarios as in the series usually it is just spam missiles and hope for a hit, or get in close and nail their reactor with a railgun.

[@Immashift]

The first part where they save the razorback... I'm rewatching the show, this time with my aunt who grew up with Star Trek TOS but doesn't know space or physics that well. I went through this scene almost frame by frame with her after we watched it, explaining all the mechanics at work. The moment it finally clicked with her and she figured out the maneuver was great :D This show is the only one that will really make you think about how stuff was done, mechanically speaking. Nothing else comes close. Even BSG was more showy than this.

[@commenter4898]

In BSG there are no computers so combats occur at a closer distance. The VFX people then realized that they had to slow down the bullets to let the audience see it.

[@RazvanCosti]

Having just come off reading Persepolis Rising, the conflict events in this season 3 seem so much like a “goold old days” type of thing..

[@tahu1349]

So so much better than most of the other scifi shows. Gritty storylines, great acting, no forced agenda, unique characters, with political intrigue, but people trying to do the right thing. And the plots and physics closer to reality, which what makes it alot more believable.

[@reentrysfs6317]

@Max Bardus after watching the sequels I never expected there to be any risk And then I watch this show

[@tilltronje1623]

What is forced agenda supposed to be?

[@commenter4898]

@@tilltronje1623 If the show were bad, some people would complain it's bad because there's a woke agenda to make Bobbie and Avasarala badass females who beat down men on a regular basis, Naomi a black female engineer, and Camina and Amos bisexual. But because the show is good, it's suddenly not a force agenda but a correct way to do empowerment.

[@tilltronje1623]

@@commenter4898 so "forced agenda" just means he hates women and black people

[@omeven5785]

@@commenter4898 You also forget the whole anti imperialism theme going on with the belt

[@Laeadern]

Easily one of the best Sci Fi shows on TV in quite a long time.

[@sheamus83]

The funny thing is Mars doesn’t actually need nukes to win against earth. all they really need is rocks

[@pramitkhanna7163]

sheamus83 whoops! That's a spoiler right there! :D

[@Dori-Ma]

Tungsten rods with a diameter of 3ft and a length of 25ft would be more effective since they'd weather re-entry better. Plus aiming those at oceans instead of land masses would net you more destructive power per shot. Yay for tidal waves/tsunamis and the majority of the worlds population living withing such close proximity to the oceans and seas of the Earth.

[@gonzapra1]

What a spoiler lol

[@Gala-yp8nx]

Not to mention you wouldn't have radiation ruining that only habitable planet.

[@georgezwick3717]

*cough* *cough* The books *cough* *cough*

[@anderazkuna6698]

I guess they could have used some calibrations hahaha

[@autumngottlieb3071]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[@Viguier89]

Garrus ?

[@bbaker4117]

HAHAHAHA! This comment pleases your Khal.

[@R4Y2k]

"Telemetry data indicates the calibration of the railgun weapon system can be improved by .32 percent" "That's all? You can't squeeze .34 percent out of it?" "Negative, that threshold is not possible" "You sure? Take a look now!" "Scanning... Railgun's weapon systems have improved by a margin of .43 percent. How did you accomplish this?!" "A little secret we earthers like to keep to ourselves.... always hold some back for emergencies"

[@Dakka1968]

Closest ill get to mass effect tv series

[@Tonydjjokerit]

EVE online TV series will be a lot better!Apparantly Ridley Scott is involved!

[@R4Y2k]

Well, we have Amos the Krogan, Alex "Joker" Kamal, Naomi vas Rocinante and Detective Garrus Miller who shoots first and asks questions later... and of course Paragon Holden-Shepard as the captain of the SSV Rocinante .... I rate your post accurate! :D

[@TheCererean]

@@R4Y2k Paragon? Not around Eros. Or Ganymede.

[@Barbaroossa]

There's this one space combat scene in episode 2 that is so fucking rad I had to lay down my laptop and collect myself.

[@MorRobots]

At 4:20 you see what a THAAD system on steroids would look like in the future.

[@basslinedan2]

Or what "Star Wars" could've looked like in the 80s.

[@tis_ace]

@@basslinedan2 yass, they do seem to look like lasers haha

[@theenigma7290]

I mean tbf the railgun shots be invisible on screen otherwise

[@marcusanderson9042]

Roci flying in like a superhero! 0:58

[@thepuncakian2024]

2:12 was he purposely doing a right hand rule there?

[@sosofishy8523]

4:18 I love that he has a somber expression on when he said it.

[@MartinAslaksen]

Ep 5 of season 3 is the best episode I've seen, what a blast

[@trollson66]

UK here... Still waiting for season 3 to arrive... bring it on!

[@noname-wo9yy]

Given that some of the missile carrying platforms are on the other side of the sun, you would not need to hit them perfectly as there would be a communication lag time given the distance.

[@jonny-b4954]

That's what I was thinking. Like... lag time, so you could actually hit them probably minutes apart and have no effect.

[@joelmulder]

I haven’t gotten to this part in the books yet, but the series often skips time. That launch malfunction likely took tens of seconds if not minutes to resolve, which is plenty of time for the missile platforms to transmit and receive information. Even if the time delay was small and we assume the platforms needed no time to prepare for firing, there’s some distance (even if probably small) where they could see the projectile coming, and that would certainly be enough time to sound the alarm.

[@bhuvaneshs.k638]

Love this series... !!! The best there is

[@martinoplaya7805]

are there any more of these? I loved it

[@Kuoted]

In the earlier scenario, Errinwright said that there is an 82% chance of success. The SG (secretary-general) did the right thing ordering them to stand down and wait for better chances. Otherwise, with the 5 stealth platforms and that 82% chance of success, that means just south of 1/5 of the platforms will remain, which indicates that the survived platform will then have more time to fire all of its planet-busters/MIRV warheads (10 x 20 = 200), 200 times more than what the Earth's defense can handle. 1 out of 20+ (from the looks of it, there were also decoys amongst the MIRV warheads) warheads was not stopped by the planetary defenses. If there were more planet-busters fired, surely Earth would have received far worse than 1 warhead going off.

[@ReddwarfIV]

Plus, Errinwright only puts the blame on the Secretary General for political reasons. Its quite obvious that Errinwright was the one who ordered the platforms charged up in the first place, despite not yet receiving the order to fire. Yes, the platform malfunctioned because of the SG's order to stand down, but they should not have been charged up in the first place.

[@Arkalius80]

I think he means an 82% chance of successfully destroying all 5 platforms in one strike. The other 18% is for other outcomes (including potentially the one they experienced)

[@yukin1990]

If i remember correctly, Errinwright's 82% chance success is to destroying all 5 platforms in one strike without finding the other three missile platform. ReddwarfIV statement is correct!!!

[@taymoorarsalan7789]

The 200 times more than earth can handle means that earth can't handle ANY missiles, which is very wrong

[@ImperativeGames]

Btw, in those 18% of failure there are possibilities that *2* platforms would be hit late or even that one railgun platform will break during shot and will not fire at all. Then, if they would decide to launch all their missiles, it will be billions people dying. Errinwright was crazy.

[@adikmen007]

Very good scene. Not much shown but little things like this add to the story alot

[@roberttherrien352]

And thats why this is the best sf show right now.

[@JoaoSoares-rs6ec]

The maneuver the rocinante does against the unn ship is nothing short o brilliant, if the unn had just a hand full of captains like that they would be unbeatable

[@cinemantics231]

Agreed, brilliant maneuver, but wasteful of resources as the Rocci fires 5 nukes to confuse the ship, then another 2 torpedoes to take it out. It makes sense from their standing, but if the Rocci was fighting for a side with other ships besides her, I doubt, anyone would start to think like that.

[@JoaoSoares-rs6ec]

good point, none the less four a one on one, I do concede that the UNN ship was more interested in the razorback, against a much larger ship, a frigate against a battleship, one hell of a move, most frigate captains would call for help our try to escape,

[@sparrowlt]

they were punching waaay above their weight as Holden says.. thats a Leonidas class battleship ..with a fraklot of PDCs, 2 railguns and 36 torpedo launchers.. The Roci is a light frigate so they cant win a missile fight.. they cant go near it or they would be railguned or PDCed.. their only chance to cripple it was to get close and personal while negating the battleship`'s defense screen.. so wasting a lot of torpedoes and succeeding seems like a win to me despite expending nearly all.. simply firing missiles at that ship would not worked at all.. the battleship had a much better PDC screen and has a magnitude more missiles at their disposal.. they only were defeated by a combination of aparent incompetence.. their fixation in getting Avasarala at all costs, Holden wit and luck

[@949surferdude]

good explanation thx

[@John73John]

A few problems with the missile platform part of the episode: 1. Look closely at the hologram. The platforms are more or less evenly spaced around Mars's orbit about the sun. The speed-of-light delay between Earth and Mars ranges from around 4 minutes (when the 2 planets are closest) to almost half an hour (when they're on opposite sides). So if you're shooting at 5 targets positioned around mars's orbit, you'er going to be doing some waiting. Railgun shots go quite fast, but not as fast as light. So firing a shot and knowing whether it was a hit or miss should take AT LEAST an hour for the most distant platform. 2. The 5th missile platform shouldn't have been able to get a shot off regardless of the railgun malfunction. See #1 above. Speed-of-light delay also works for communication between the platforms. Even if the last railgun fired a full minute late, the missile platform would never have time to receive the message saying the other platforms were under attack. 3. The missile coming toward Earth also got there way too fast... same as above.

[@WhoCarezism]

Maybe the platforms have RADAR or LADAR that could detect the projectile coming from some distance. That would explain why the first platform seemed to use its maneuvering thrusters right before it got hit; it knew the projectile was coming and tried to get out of the way. It could be that the following 3 platforms tried to do the same and failed while the fifth platform decided to do something different. In this case, the missile launch had nothing to do with the delay in the railgun. I know it's grasping for straws but maybe it's a ploy by Errinwright to make the Secretary feel guilty and thus more willing to push the button next time.

[@patrikg.6320]

You are right, but lest say, we saw the drives go really really fast over 10g soo how long would it take in constant 10g acteleration to get to earth ?, actualy havnt saw the episode yet soo dont know is the drive was on the whole time.

[@illusiveman1613]

Time compression mate cmon its not that hard to figure out

[@gavinkemp7920]

they do run at a constante accelaration. at that acceleration it would take between 10 and 24 hours for the missiles to arrive. assuming they can enter the atmosphere at maximum thrust. other wise it would be closer to 13 to 35 hours

[@patrikg.6320]

yep and we sav the drives go well beond 10g, and the missales are unmaned they could take up to 35g of acceleration no problem but assuming the drive can provide that would be a strech

[@xmaniac99]

You can never have enough guns .. can’t believe I just wrote that.

[@lucablight4069]

Looking forward to this! Like billtang79 said, One if not the best sci fi show at the mo.

[@cissymissy8079]

I always feel so smart when I manage keep up with the storyline of this show. lolz

[@pseudonymousbeing987]

You look familiar, are you sure you aren't Molly Bee Reacts?

[@cissymissy8079]

@@pseudonymousbeing987 oh I just looked her up, what a cool lady with that tattoo but no i'm not her

[@kingjeremysircornwell7847]

not in my space you don't, you are malfunctioning

[@DemitriX.]

I really hope someone picks up Season 4 for this show, shows like these deserve to go on

[@muhammadarifwicaksana5697]

you got your wish. Amazon will do.

[@DemitriX.]

Indeed, and Jeff said *upcoming seasons*

[@davidedbrooke9324]

Great series, best sci if.

[@latch9781]

The Holden Manouver is one of the best in sci-fi

[@alexander_marvelon]

I love the expanse

[@majalca03]

Best sci fi show out there!

[@dgd947a15fl]

The funny thing is that there's no logical need for the Martial first strike missiles to have any sort of launch platform like that. It's space, not an ocean. There's nowhere for it to sink to.

[@jwilliams703]

I single 155mm howitzer does the same thing by firing its 1st shell higher with more propellant then the next lower with less and so on. it can put 6 or more rounds on a single target at once. MATH!

[@kortaffel]

That's why you shoot twice.

[@PrograError]

it's a railgun not a semi auto... it needs to charge...

[@kortaffel]

have more than 5 railguns. 10 for example and shoot 2 per target. common practise in soviet anti air in vietnam to shoot 2 missles per plane.

[@franciscomoutinho1]

Yeah, makes sense, add redundancies to reduce the probability of failure.

[@illusiveman1613]

Kor Taffel well those are giant interplanetary railguns bigger than battleships so you cant just build 5 more because the probably cost trillions

[@rendedspace5606]

If they had built more rail guns then Mars would have just built more platforms

[@will-lk7ew]

cette serie mérite de continuer j'etait pas fan de la science fiction avant depuis the expanse je commence a trouvé se theme plus que bien

[@Vonbek32]

Your stagger is called "Time on Target" :D

[@spaceman8935]

Y'know about the rail gun issue, unless Earth only has 5 orbital rail guns, surely you'd have alternative guns for each strike also primed up and ready to fire.

[@marianpazdzioch6632]

Awerage distance between Mars and Earth is 13 light minutes. I don't know how reailguns are described in books in matter of projectile speed, but having them achieving even 1/100 of lightspeed would be hard to belive. But even with that speed it would take several hours to get from Earth to Mars.

[@jaltrayen3882]

The timing was compressed in the episode so it went by faster. The show writers explained It took a few hours for them

[@jaydaytoday3548]

Really good show. Up there with Battle Star Galactica remake, and Stargate

[@erick-erickson968]

Yesss!!! The best series of space!!! The best without doubts!!

[@EliahHoliday]

Actually this just reminded me...I remember in the first season there was a plot point about the stealth ships that just seemed to...disappear, when the whole alien protomolecule thing started up.

[@Karas540]

What do you mean? All stealth ships were destroyed

[@EliahHoliday]

@@Karas540 It seemed to be a big deal as the series started. These mysterious stealth ships.

[@ashutoshmohapatra7320]

@@EliahHoliday It is a big deal. One of the main plotlines in season 4 is about that.

[@Taospark]

2:50 There's also an existing naval term called "time on target" so that all of the missiles hit at the same time, which Babylon 5 uses during the battle against the Earth destroyers that try to take the station.

[@ogrejiang1444]

am worried about season 4 is not met those standard in term of science element, hopefully it will prove me wrong

[@companymen42]

I'm surprised earth and mars don't just start firing railgun rounds at each other. Its not like you can really defend against that.

[@masonkiefer1222]

companymen42 The rounds would probably burn up in atmosphere or loose so much velocity they become ineffective

[@joecallan8422]

Hitting a moving target at a distance of 30 some million miles might prove difficult even in The Expanse's timeframe.

[@companymen42]

@@joecallan8422 Yea but you know the orbital path of the planet and the planet's rate of rotation, so it would make it easier to hit, unlike a ship that can change it's orbital path on a whim.

[@totemictoad4691]

the issue with planet to planet railguns is hitting a planet is easy, hitting what you want on that planet is damn ass hard. given that in order to be economic to launch the rail projectiles are relatively small your using small detonations on a vast target with minimal aiming, you could fire 1000 times and hit no useful target or one shot the enemy capital first try, combined with the travel times between the two planets and the fact the incoming vector for the rounds is calculable and a spy satellite at the other end will tell you when they are firing giving you some warning you could move rocks or expendable ships into the incoming path to soak up fire

[@alexfraser2214]

@@thewolfPrince SPOILERS but you are wrong sir im pretty sure its tungsten rods that are droped on earth.

[@christrotter3052]

The Expanse was amazing....

[@remarmiger2834]

Was?

[@MK-rw1on]

Is!

[@scarletblaze]

4:21 It looks like the Martians' missile shot some "flares" to avoid being shot down by the Earth's missiles. But where the earth's missiles are coming from? I see some coming from the earth's surface, but some seem to be shot from space?

[@rahbaralhaq]

scarletblaze Those are MIRV (Nuclear warheads), each missile had 20 of them. And Earth obviously had orbital defense platforms and ship in palace.

[@crazydeano81]

Best show ever!

[@jusbe47]

Is this ever going to make it to screens in the UK?

[@Temstar04]

If the shots need to be staggered due to transit time, couldn't a single railgun be used to fire all the shots if it could reload fast enough? Or alternatively since it was the last shot that failed, couldn't one of the other that fired first take over the last shot, if they've done reloading?

[@mycroft16]

Possibly, but there are some large ifs on that. These are planetary rail guns. I'm assuming they need quite a significant amount of energy and I don't know the recharge time on all of the capacitors for that, but I'm guessing that it is more than the ~15 seconds between 1st and 5th shot. There is also the question of repositioning the rail gun. These are dumb fire projectiles so you have to point them where you want them to go. That may take more than 15 seconds as well. And this is assuming use of the rail gun that fired first. If it was on the wrong side of the planet to hit the 5th platform, then that isn't an option any of the remaining 3 railguns would have even less time to recharge, realign, and fire.

[@stardude2006]

Kinetic Kill weaponry is fun ! Isn't it ? 👽💚

[@distomos8118]

Yeah sure, unless you’re the target und you cannot do absolutely anything to stop them. Still enjoying it..?

[@lilkris3008]

I thought he was gonna go over the actual orbit at first I don’t see how the roci got turned around that fast flip and burn would have killed them

[@JS-hz7no]

Le meilleur série 😃👍

[@TeeDubzz]

Surely mars would be observing railgun orientation and note that they are primed for locations where their missile batteries are though?

[@mycroft16]

Yes, but the speed of light applies. And depending on where in the orbits Earth and Mars are, that can be anywhere from 8 minutes to 20 minutes. So by the time they see the railguns change alignment, it's already been 8 - 20 minutes. Which is why Earth would also do the alignment as literally the last thing before firing, to maximize their window of time before Mars can find out. There is the potential that there are spy platforms, or that the actual missile platforms are doing the monitoring, and being closer they would be able to react much faster, but there would still be a time delay due to the speed of light.

[@TeeDubzz]

@@mycroft16 It's not about railgun charge, it's about the fact that the railgun is positioned exactly where the sattelites are so they would know in advance that UN knows where the missile platforms are due to large railgun orientation.

[@MrChupacabra555]

Did you catch that slight smile as he said 'and that has significant consequences"? ^_^

[@theespatier4456]

Chup Smith Genocide

[@smasher123ism]

Dude like wtf. That high velocity debris will fuck up some belter mining an asteroid.

[@rock3tcatU233]

You want to bust my planet-buster? I'll counter your planet buster-buster, with my planet-buster-buster-buster!

[@UNSF]

As much as I like this scene I really want to complain how fast the missiles and rail gun rounds are moving towards Mars / Earth orbit. It takes at least 3 mins for even light to reach Mars and that is when its at closest to Earth (it is 22 mins at farthest). No matter how powerful a railgun or an Epstein drive may be, there is no way it could be near the speed of light, which should give Earth ample of time to fire intercepting missiles.

[@basedeltazero714]

The real question is 'why do they only have five railguns'. Why not have additional guns ready in case one fails?

[@Tonydjjokerit]

can't wait to see the show!a couple of questions though,is it on Netflix and quite surprised Lasers and Particle beams aren't featured.The Russians have this tech since the days of the Soviet Union in 1978 and lasers are being touted by President Trump.Also X ray and Gamma ray lasers (Grasers) have also been with the US since the mid 70s as well as Tesla Coils.also featured in the 1980s

[@alexfraser2214]

Its on amazon prime with season 3 being released on it very shortly, and season 4 to come sometime this year. From what ive heard the weapons you describe are not powerful enough at range and at short range there are more effective weapons. However in the books i think there is a scene where a ships heats up another ship with a laser cooking the people inside. A laser would have a hard time cutting through metal at the ranges that are used in the series but cooking another ship is possible as it is hard to get rid of heat in space.

[@Tonydjjokerit]

@@alexfraser2214 Cheers Alex! Also please let me know when the Expanse is filming again for 4 and 5 as my friend is an actor and wants to be in it.If you know the imdb for the Expanse I will be most .greatful. RESPECT from Sheffield UK. If my friend gets the part,I will buy you a beer!

[@ajet0452]

Why is everything so darkly lit

[@WOranos]

Canterbury XO: You know what I just can't figure out? We make it all this way, so far out into the darkness. Why couldn't we have brought more light?

[@ajet0452]

Wrath Oranos lmao

[@kimpirihi]

Sending a rocket to Earth from Mars would take months

[@ianhedeman5684]

kim pirihi I'm pretty sure they explained that they're close in proximity to Earth because of their stealth ability.

[@thakillman7]

With modern rocket technology? Yea. With advanced fusion engines that run on efficiency? No, a few days at most. Of course, this being TV, that time gets compressed a bit to make for a more exciting scene (Errinwright checking his screen every 2 episodes to see if these missiles hit isn't terribly exiting). But it makes sense. Hell, most Sci Fi tropes exist for TV adaptation (Hyperdrive? no annoying time constraints. in-your-face battles? no need to consider orbits, intercept times, speed of light. etc)

[@dwightwilliams5892]

In the fight scene discussed from "IFF", does the UN ship that Errinwright sent after the _Razorback_ have a name?

[@xyr3s]

i thought it was called the UNN Erinwright lol. i thought it was named after him : p

[@snauw]

No, it's referred to as "UNN Escort Ship under Errinwright's control" about 5 min into the episode.

[@xyr3s]

you are infact, correct

[@SpencerAK74M]

I just want to know the yield of each of the MIRVs

[@bratimm]

They said that the blast radius was about 11km I think, so depending on what they mean by that, it is either about 50-100 Mt, or ~1 Mt, or a lot more than 100Mt. We know from the books that they have 1Gt nukes so everything is possible. One thing is for sure: The Explosion in the show is way too big, it looks more like 100km than 11km.

[@zlozlozlo]

I know the story said "They get one off and there's a nuclear strike in South America", but realistically if you have a mission critical element, you go for redundancy. That means they'd have at least two rail guns shooting at each platform, in case one fails to launch, or misses, or something. Possibly three.

[@EroticOnion23]

IIRC they only had 5 platforms. Earth's economy wasn't doing so hot for years previously after losing more of the Belt to Mars; and those platforms are like bigger than battleships costing probably costing trillions each to make and maintain.

[@shadowofhawk55]

To further what Onion said, these were only the ones they could angle without Mars getting suspicious at them.

[@bighara]

If you want to understand a lot of how ships move in the Expanse, play Kerbal Space Program.

[@C4ndleJ4ck]

Interesting how they didn't talk about Earth's point defence fucking quantum laser array.

[@johnmcclain5972]

How much are they going by the books now?

[@daedalus-N7]

They fucked up that scene of the roci point blank torping that UNN ship. They got the physics totally wrong. After the plasma / nuke Torpedoes detonated and made that cloud. The Cloud would have been on a fixed trajectory not accelerating. So when the razi cut thrust it would have never fallin back through the cloud towards the UNN ship. The roci would have had to turn 180 and started accelerating in the opposite direction (nose pointed toward the UNN ship) In order to go through that cloud. If not the cloud would have stayed behind the Roci and the UNN ship would have flown through the cloud, THEN ran into the roci

[@artboymoy]

Man. There's a ton of debris out in space now...

[@kimnice]

As realistic this series is there were annoying plot hole with this rail gun thing: They assumed that communication is instant and isn't bound by the speed of light. There was only 10 seconds delay with the last shot. Meaning that one of the destroyed platforms must have been less than 10 light seconds away from that last platform. The show suggested that they were much further away from each other (for example 1:56). This means that information about the attack wouldn't have reached the platform before it was destroyed.

[@rolypoly4920]

That part bugged me too. I just did some math based on this scene and I believe that the Martian platforms should be around 193 light-seconds apart, assuming the hologram is accurate and the platforms are all roughly the same distance from each other.

[@bjarnesinkjr7440]

Just think if they had used just as half much thought to make 'The last jedi'

[@Blottingpaper]

Is this in the books at all? I don't remember this. Haven't read past book three.

[@thakillman7]

No, it's not. These are the railguns that were mentioned in Nemesis Games though.

[@Th3Nigma]

Nope.

[@marwapranata5698]

Should have made it into a colony drop, it will be much more effective.

[@dsdy1205]

Well now.

[@cosmicphoto05]

Ugh, I want to watch this, but I can’t because I don’t have access to Season 3. Stupid region blocking. 🤬

[@worryingrogue5763]

Benjamin Green VPN?

[@M3A7]

Amazon?

[@majmage]

Man, that'd be super frustrating for this show. When are we gonna finally do away with region blocking anyway? :/

[@1320crusier]

Dat MIRV doh

[@davidmcrae4791]

Should've said spoiler alert

[@lornedryer5356]

#savetheexpanse

[@fatalmidget7635]

In the first one, if all the ships are moving in the same direction, how did the roci turn around so quick?

[@kiedranFan2035]

Either the roci decelerated or changed its aceleration pace relative to the others before flipping over to shoot the final shots

[@dsdy1205]

All the ships are accelerating in a single direction, and maintaining formation. If the Roci shuts off her engines, she no longer accelerates, which means from the remaining ships' point of view she "falls" towards the UNN ship very quickly, given that they were accelerating at several g.

[@fatalmidget7635]

@@dsdy1205 Ah great now I understand, thanks!

[@JetEngine787]

So awesome. #SAVETHEEXPANSE

[@cumguzzler8537]

DONT TOUCH THE AQUA!

[@TinyTalesBookClub]

Why would Mars keep their stealth systems equal distance apart? Why not random making it harder to figure shit out?

[@nerd1000ify]

Earth has anti-missile defenses: If the missile salvoes arrived one after the other the defenses could pick most of the warheads off before they hit. Therefore to ensure that enough nukes hit to be a knockout blow on Earth they positioned their platforms so all the missiles would arrive at the same time.

[@Lorgar64]

I feel like 2,000,000 was peanuts.

[@marcstaley1526]

Is it true that SYFY will cancel this show after season 3? True or false?

[@gynxor]

The show has been cancelled :(

[@Phrancis5]

yeah it got canned. too expensive to produce. I hope someone like netflix picks it up or they at least wrap up the series with good resolution.

[@muhammadarifwicaksana5697]

yes, and Amazon will take it for the upcoming seasons.

[@Merlmabase]

Really love the ending with "BRING IT ON" appearing onscreen as 2 000 000 civilians die in nuclear fire. So tasteful.

[@Emanon...]

It's fiction. That's like getting butthurt over "awesome space battle" when playing computer games. Get over it and stop being such a goddamn kale pooper...

[@AKlover]

1.6M welfare dependents in South America.......................... No shits were given that day.

[@robinbjerregaard4077]

We're going to need a snow plow...

[@Th3Nigma]

Twist: Your descendant lives in South America.

[@Th3Nigma]

That's essentially what it looks like when warmongering politicians play at war.

[@kkhalifah1019]

Why didn't the Martians aim that missile at the UN HQ...? That would have solved the problem immediately.

[@Infinity238]

From what it would seem each warhead has different targets, one of the other 19 warheads may have been targeted to new york. The only one that wasn't shot down was the south american warhead.

[@PackedWolf]

Once the smaller warheads split off from the main carrier torpedo, their fuel is really limited. Like Infinity238 said, it's likely the one of the other warheads was targeted for UN HQ - but of course, Earth's defense batteries can calculate the trajectories in a split second and prioritize what missiles to shoot down based on where each warhead would land. Thus the most likely ones to get through the defense screen are those hitting less populated areas.

[@Bearmauls]

Also possible that, from the angle the missile was coming in on, the UN HQ wasn't an available target. If the missile was approaching Earth from below (beneath the plane of the ecliptic), targets in the northern hemisphere would require the MIRV warhead to take a longer flight path, exposing it to Earth's orbital point defenses for longer and it wouldn't get through at all. We did see them shoot down all the other warheads except the single one that got through, so that's a pretty effective anti-missile system.

[@fucky889]

In an case the UN war room would have been underground and heavy defend so it won't have solved any problem

[@AKlover]

MIRV warhead = 1 Missile 6-12 sub munitions. Those sub-munitions have distinct targets or they cluster and the damage radius of each sub-munition overlaps slightly. Obviously it is more difficult for a close in weapons system to deal with 144 sub-munitions versus 12 rockets.

[@permaderp]

Still don't get why the UN Escort ship didn't just shoot the Roci with torpedos or its PDC's, after all only their engine was damaged.

[@davidedbrooke9324]

PermaDerp power loss?

[@permaderp]

Alex clearly states that the rest of the ship is intact tho, only the engines have been chipped off :/

[@davidedbrooke9324]

PermaDerp yes but maybe the launchers power comes from the engines.

[@permaderp]

I don't know how exactly fusion drives work in the expanse, but they're likely not generating power for the ship. This is supported by the fact that the Donnager continued to fight even after it had to shut down its engine.

[@davidedbrooke9324]

PermaDerp Hmm True, so what’s the answer?

[@MattTheTubaGuy]

I understand why the show depicts things that way (it would be boring otherwise), but the time it takes for anything to happen in the show is far too quick. The Martian missile stations appear to be spaced around the orbit of Mars, while the Earth rail guns are in orbit around Earth. Even at the speed of light, the shortest possible time would be 3 minutes, while it would take 20 minutes to reach the Mars station on the opposite side of the sun. Realistically, the times would be hours, and Mars would almost certainly observe Earth's rail guns firing (highly energetic events are pretty much impossible to hide, even if you keep the weapons secret up to that point), and would have time to work out what they are planning, and retaliate before the rail gun shots hit the Mars stations. At 0.1c, if Mars was opposite the sun from Earth, they would know before the first rail gun shot hits (20 minutes after the rail guns fire), but would not be able to get a signal to that station before it was destroyed (rail gun round huts after 30 minutes, signal from Mars would reach station after 55 minutes). I can't be bothered doing all the maths required, but the signal from Mars would reach at least two of the stations before the rail gun rounds (closer to mars, but farther from Earth), and Earth would have dozens of nuclear missiles heading towards it. That is the best case scenario. Worst case scenario is that the Martian stations observe the rail guns firing, and all of them launch the missiles before they are destroyed. Don't get me wrong, I love The Expanse, and it is the best Sci-Fi out there. I have a degree in physics though, so these things still bug me.

[@pseudonymousbeing987]

In this video what they say is that they have to stagger the shots, because if you hit one platform first then wait to hit the others Mars will know and retaliate. So this means that Earth has to have perfectly timed strikes to eliminate all platforms simultaneously. You make the assumption that Mars would see the attack from signatures given of by the firing of Earth's weaponry. The writers have assumed that Mars is not able to do that and that the only way they know something is wrong is if their systems go offline. So given that Mars does not register the railguns firing, and given that they are all staggered to hit each target simultaneously, I see no problem with the physics. Since it's one railgun firing at a time, thus less concentrated energy than a simultaneous fire, and it's 300 years into the future. We can assume that not just spy tech but stealth tech have evolved.

[@reneebear3641]

I still prefer the books. Show is badass.

[@coreyc47]

I am really REALLY REALLY REALLY pissed off the Syfy channel dropped this show! The best show out & the dropped it! Someone needs to be beaten!!!

[@user-lp7tx1fe6t]

Amazon bought it. Now its on prime video and a season 4 is coming

[@AlexJones-ue1ll]

The 5th platform firing is still pointless. How did it know to power up? They are spread wide and even if ONE of the other 4 platforms managed to send a warning, that signal would still have needed time to reach the 5th platform. Given how fast the others were destroyed, they surely had to limited a time to even react to what was happening. Sorry, they cant instantly tell the others whats going on. The delay made no difference.

[@dsdy1205]

It's not clear that the missile platform was warned by its dying compatriots. Maybe it simply lost signal from them, maybe it saw the energy release from the previous 4 railgun shots. The geometry is right for those warning signs to have reached the platform before the railgun shot arrived. Keep in mind also that the railgun bullets don't travel very fast compared to the speed of light, so there's loads of time for the light to reach the platform. Now, given that, I don't know why the other platforms didn't also see the launches destined for themselves, so oh well.

[@jcs1025]

So pissed this show got cancelled.

[@dawncote306]

awesome show, do yourself a favor and watch. It's the best show your not watching, guaranteed

[@zzz181085]

Syfy channel are idiots for selling it off, but it's for the better for the show.