Every Space Show Gets This Wrong (Except The Expanse)

Ninety-four of you asked for this one, so here it is: all six seasons of The Expanse, in order, run through every test this yard has ever built. The show takes exactly one free miracle, a fusion drive that works far too well, and then lets the real universe send the bill: the radiation, the bones, the ice runs, the orbits, the rocks, the recoil and the heat. From the Canterbury's last ice run and spinning Ceres, through the Donnager, Eros, Ganymede and the slow zone, to Ilus, Naomi's jump and the last battle at the Ring, every claim is checked against the real thing: NASA's chamber accident in 1966, a tether that snapped at 19.7 km, Skylab, Chelyabinsk, the US Navy's railgun, Japan's railgun at sea and the radiators on the International Space Station. This is our 10,000-subscriber episode. Every name that asked for it is in the roll call at the end. Rhythm, this one has your name on it. Spoiler alert! CHAPTERS 00:00 No wings, no runway: the Rocinante comes down 02:15 The rule: one free miracle (the Epstein drive) 06:41 Test 1, the survey: the Canterbury 11:11 Grandma's lab: Ceres 14:22 Test 2, the up, the weight, the dark: the Donnager 19:09 Test 3, work orders: the Rocinante 22:32 Test 4, findings: radiation, light, Mars 25:21 Test 5, share a room: the protomolecule 28:15 Test 6, ground, foot, size: Ganymede 30:56 Test 7, ice, wake, cost: the juice 34:16 The weight, again: the slow zone 36:17 Test 8, drop, hover, climb: Ilus 41:54 Test 9, fuel, heat, balance: Naomi's jump 44:41 The dark, again: the rocks 47:32 The last battle: railguns 49:59 The last inspection: the heat 51:01 The verdict, and 10,000 thank-yous Narrated by: Me :) SOURCES Drive, the novella the Epstein flashback adapts (Reactor): https://reactormag.com/?p=258686 Direct Fusion Drive (Princeton Satellite Systems): https://www.psatellite.com/dfd/ Spinning Ceres up to 0.3 g: the energy (Physics Special Topics, Leicester): https://journals.le.ac.uk/index.php/p... Miller's drink and the Coriolis curl (Jacques Distler, Musings): https://classes.golem.ph.utexas.edu/~... Ceres is up to 30 % water (Dawn, Science 2017, via AZPM): https://azpm.org/s/44910-dwarf-planet... Saturn's rings and the ice run (James Davis Nicoll): https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/t... All about Phoebe (ESA, Cassini-Huygens): https://www.esa.int/Science_Explorati... 433 Eros and NEAR Shoemaker (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEAR_Sh... Radiation maps of Europa (NASA): https://europa.nasa.gov/news/17/radia... Not enough CO2 to terraform Mars (Astronomy): https://www.astronomy.com/science/the... Skylab re-enters the atmosphere, 1979 (NASA History): https://www.nasa.gov/history/45-years... TSS-1R, the tether that snapped at 19.7 km (NASA NSSDC report): https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/space/tex... Human exposure to vacuum, with the LeBlanc chamber accident (Oikofuge): https://oikofuge.com/human-exposure-t... Chelyabinsk fireball (NASA JPL CNEOS): https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/news/fireb... Asteroid 2019 OK's surprise close approach (ESA): https://esa.int/Space_Safety/Asteroid... Japan fires a ship-mounted railgun at a target vessel (Naval News): https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/... Dragonflies with railguns: where are the radiators? (Rob Tow): https://www.tauzero.com/Rob_Tow/essay... The Expanse sticks to space realities, mostly (Alan Boyle, Cosmic Log): https://cosmiclog.com/2018/05/31/the-... Jeff Bezos on saving The Expanse, ISDC 2018 (Space.com): https://www.space.com/40722-jeff-bezo... FOOTAGE The Expanse (2015-2022), seasons 1-6 (Syfy / Amazon Prime Video), used for commentary and criticism. Real footage: NASA (LeBlanc's vacuum chamber, centrifuge training, ISS, DART), SpaceX, the U.S. Navy, Japan's ATLA, the NASA / AEC nuclear rocket film, Chelyabinsk dash cameras, the #SaveTheExpanse balloon and ISDC 2018. The 3D models, maps, diagrams and the ship-yard paperwork were made for this video (drawn in code). Skeleton: BodyParts3D, (c) The Database Center for Life Science, licensed under CC Attribution-Share Alike 2.1 Japan. Jim LeBlanc interview and chamber film: "Space Suit Testing" documentary. Painting of the Chicxulub impact: Donald E. Davis / NASA. Portraits: CU Boulder, Northern Arizona University. The Bell Rocket Belt: Bell Helicopter Records film (1960s), via Archive Rewind / University of North Texas Special Collections. Thunderball (1965) and Alien (1979) clips used for commentary.