Questions of Scale (Deconstructing The Expanse, part 1)

(other titles:)

How to do Solar-System-Travelog SF and Not Get It Completely Wrong

How Magical is The Expanse's "Epstein Drive" Anyway?

Why Nuclear Fusion Sucks and We Really Need Those Antimatter Cells

What Part of "Rockets Are Stupid" Did You Not Understand?

Just to get something out of the way up front:

I am now mostly convinced that, barring unexpectedly early, lucky results to our terraforming experiments, colonizing the solar system will for a long time remain an absurd enterprise that will only make sense if we manage to screw up the Earth really, really, really bad — at which point we've probably already gone extinct — and that SF premised on this should be regarded as a variety of steampunk (i.e. seeing what stories we can make out of improbable combinations of technology).

But never mind that. I do eventually expect an assortment of random human-crewed research/mining-supervision/etc stations scattered about needing to engage in commerce of a sort. E.g., just as today we maintain South Pole Station at fantastic expense and there's no way in hell anybody expects that to turn into a colony any time soon (or ever, or, at least, not until after the Antarctic ice-sheet has completely melted), but there will always be a few nutjobs wanting to live there. They may never comprise more than an infinitesimal percentage of Earth's population, but it will be sufficient to make the rest of this post/sub-series not entirely useless.

Having finished a re-watch of (the good parts of) The Expanse, I have to say, I really appreciate how they evidently did give thought to the solar system being way, way bigger than people give it credit for and are actually rather successful in getting this across in ways previous shows completely punted on — the Star Trek: TNG opening that zips by Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn in a matter of seconds being one of those "No, Just No" moments.

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