Welcome to all you Expanse fans who are new to Spacedock! Be sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell to keep up with this series as it continues. Huge thanks to The Expanse team for this fantastic opportunity, I hope you all enjoy this first episode. :)
I am very excited for this series, and the first installment definitely doesn't disappoint! I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest of this series!
borg111 Not exactly. While lasers have been proven to be extremely reliable in niche roles, there still a very early technology with many practical problems that might not be solved in decades. I’m pretty sure they have laser weapons in the Expanse, though apart from very niche roles, they might be outclassed in most categories when it comes to rail guns, missiles and PDC’s at least in ship-to-ship combat
@@baderminahdin9450 Lasers move at the speed of light, which practically guarantees a hit unlike a slug moved by kinetic force. Also, lasers don't utilize as much energy today (U.S. Navy says it can fire a laser that would cost a dollar per shot), why would they cost more or be harder to shoot 200 years in the future? Having an energy based weapon unaffected by gravity, instantly hits your target, no ammo concerns, no possibility of jamming due to no moving parts, and no way of intercepting the beam once fired is better than any kinetic based weapon. Sure, railguns work well for close range, but is horribly inferior at greater distances as well.
@@brandonm2286 If we have lasers today that can destroy drones and working on prototypes that can shoot down missles today, we should comfortably have lasers as weapons on ships 200 years in the future.
One thing that I haven't seen talked about in the books or show is something I've been pondering for a while now: is the UNNs other main advantage in space the ability to go faster for longer without the need for acceleration drugs? Earther crews can comfortably stay at 1g acceleration/deceleration where the MCRN crews would be feeling the strain without extensive training and conditioning. They could probably even sustain a 2g burn for days when necessary without much compensation, where the bulk of an MCRN crew would need to be in crash couches and on "the juice".
Dunno if there's a source for this but I presume the MCRN builds their ships and trains their sailors to operate at 1g. In the show it's mentioned that the MMC trains at 1g.
Chian MMC does, and I'm sure they also probably are preferential to earthborn immigrants who pass a rigorous security screening. But those are the elite of the elite, and they probably also undergo a massive amount of testing and conditioning (that probably includes bone and muscle augmentation or even gene therapy) in order to make sure they can operate in those conditions, that the average sailor or Petty Officer aboard ship doesn't have.
I would prefer to presume that the MCRN has the same 1g regimen, since it would be a fatal tactical disadvantage if your navy was restricted to 0.3g manoeuvres against enemy vessels at 1g.
+Chian it still won't help much compared to people, who were *grown* at 1G. That's why the piece about _"Martian Marines being so cool that they train at 2G"_ makes me want to half cringe half facepalm. For trained Earth native humans we'd be talking about strains comparable to air force pilots during maneuvers ie up to or even above 6G for main crew and 9G and far above for actual pilots. And continuous accelerations can easily be up to 3G BEFORE use of drugs, special G suits and proper seats. With all of those... well, current record for staying alive and *conscious* is 45G for "Earther". Likewise Mars would never be able to match production and population levels of Earth, but that's where author's willing suspension of disbelief comes in for the sake of squeezing in a plot:(
@@casacara Realistic precedent, too. Basically how the Soviet Union's tanks ended up trumping Germany's, or how militants with old cold war era weaponry can stand up to modern-equipped militaries.
@@Paytrolah Lmfao yeah, very true. Though there's also a lot of factors that play into it. Drunk rant inc. Don't even bother reading, just venting because my mind is literally boggled by shit-tier Russia is. Their modern armaments aren't the same pragmatic philosophy. They're "We want to try to emulate the West and be advanced but we don't have the technology or quality control to actually do it." And so all of their modern stuff is literal ass-cheeks. Like actual downgrades despite being better on paper, because they're too overcomplicated for their crap training regimen, too finicky to intuitively use in the field, reliant on systems that don't work, and compromises were made to try and upgrade these platforms. Like, Ukraine stalled them out with older, outdated Soviet stuff early on, before the Western aid really started flowing in. That's how bad their "upgrades" and doctrines are. Speaking of doctrine... Their leadership is like literally 2003 Iraq levels of incompetent. I mean they have been for a while, they couldn't even beat Chechnya until they just used artillery to flatten over 90% of Grozny. Nepotistic Generals who spend too much time sipping their own Kool-Aid about how great Russia is, and drilling for parades instead of training for warfare. The amount of lives they just casually throw away like they still have 280 million people and not 140 million. Seems like they haven't even attempted to come up with new strategies in the last 80 years. Glad for it though, since I support Ukraine. But holy shit. Embarrassing.
This is interesting to finally get a close look at some UNN vessels, since so far it seemed like we were being given the impression that Martian technology was superior in every way and that UN military vessels and equipment were cheap garbage, with the UNN relying purely on raw numbers to win any engagment. I'm starting to see the dynamic more like that of US vs Soviet military hardware during the Cold War, where the US went for "The Best" hardware with lots of bells and whistles, while the Soviets favoured simple, reliable hardware that did the job and could be churned out quick and cheap en-mass.
Glad I'm not the only one who notice that. It's a predictable outcome of arm race, though. If two technological equivalent nations compete with one another, the one that cannot match the number of the other side will try to compensate for the number with individual superiority.
It's actually something characters debate about in Drive(the short story about solomon epstein). Their historical analog is germans and and soviets in WW II though.
#LennoxPoodle Presumeably the debate is around German VS Soviet tanks in WW2. The debate frequently goes that the Germans produced the King Tiger, arguably the best tank of the entire war in terms of its sheer power and sophistication, but they never had many of them. The Soviets on the otherhand, produced the T-37 series, a machine that lacked the awesome raw power of the King Tiger, but was no slouch as a warmachine, but more importantly, could be turned out by the hundreds every single day, while the German's struggled to turn out one King Tiger per week. I'd say another good comparison would be the M-16 vs the AK-47. On paper the M-16 was an excellent weapon, much of the early issues regarding jamming being due more to a claim that the weapon was so good it didn't need cleaning and so cleaning kits were not issued. How ever, the AK-47 was a much cheaper weapon to produce, that while it lacked the M-16's impressive accuracy and effective range, was more than adequate during a typical firefight and more to the point, was legendarily solid and reliable, requiring very little maintainence to remain operational and very eay to repair when something did go wrong. As a result, modern decendents of the M-16 are really only issued in US forces and a few other nations, where as there are more AK-47s and its decendents around the world than any other military firearm ever produced.
Yeah, in the short story they are in more general terms. The Martians get compared to the NAZIs (by themselfes!!!!) which according to them had the superior technologies but were beaten by the masses the red army could field. Essentially their conclusion is that quantity beats quality. The whole story can be read on the official website (it's only 7 pages): www.syfy.com/theexpanse/drive/prequel.php
Quantity beats Quality *Sometimes* but not always. I think in terms of an actual war, a dust up between the UNN and MCRN would be a close run thing that could go either way, especially depending on which side has the better commanders, who know how to use what they have to work with.
The shot was beautiful indeed. I like that these pictures show the ship's colour scheme as well, that often gets lost in the show itself. I really love this video, one of the best so far! I hope you can continue your work with the Expanse team so more videos of this caliber can be expected. Also, I hope you are aware you are now basically condemned to do a versus video on Donnager against Truman. ;)
The Donnager would win in a one-on-one battle, even without its two frigates. They all but blatantly state in the books and on the show that the Martians have better stuff, though the UNN has more ships. Holden even says in the books that the only way the UN could possibly win a war with Mars would be to "...hit first, and hit hard." So if you did an EckhartsLadder-style comparison, with crews and captains at equal skill and with all other personnel and environmental factors being equal, then the Donnager would win; longer range, more mass, significantly larger dimensions, better engines (presumably, given the Truman-class apparently needs six engines to comparably maneuver a smaller ship), more crew, etc. etc. I'm not sure it would be a comparison worth making.
Yes, but the UN's ships aren't meant for a 1 on 1 battle with the Donnager, especially as their are so few ships in it's class. It's sort of like the USSR and the US, the US went with smaller but better equipped military but the Soviets went with less advanced equipment but in much larger numbers. Thankfully we never really found out which was a better idea, although this would surely be on a case by case basis, it didn't work for the German's in WW2, but it has in other conflicts so who knows.
He said "Donnager vs. Truman," which implies a one-on-one fight. If he simply meant a realistic battlefleet, see my reply again. Martian stuff far outpaces UN equivalents. Yes, there's less of it, but it's apparently objectively true that even given a clear numbers advantage the UN will always loose to Mars unless they glass the planet itself or fire protomolecule soldiers into every capital ship. I haven't seen the show yet (but now I can because it's on Amazon!), but in the books, Holden says even the Roci could take on a UN capital ship in a fight if they get in a lucky shot (while being chased by the ships sent to Avasarala; he does contend that they wouldn't be able to take on all four ships chasing them). The Germans lost the Russian front in WWII because of poor strategic and tactical decisions, not to mention the horrific weather. The way Russia was fighting was only sustainable because of foreign aid and German mistakes.
I understand all that, on all the points you raise, but my point was, a few uber powerful ships are all well and good, but without supporting fleets they are vulnerable to, in effect, wolf packs of much smaller and less capable ships. A single hyena would loose to a lion in a heartbeat, but with it's pack they can take down a lion.
The 1911's day has come and gone. It _is_ over a century old, after all. A fair number of newer handguns are more reliable. In fact, the 1911 is gaining notoriety for being a jam-o-matic with the wrong ammunition, especially when it's not an original GI-issue Colt model, or an often very expensive, high-quality clone. I think a better comparison might be something like an AK or even a well-built custom AR-15 to a fair number of current-day rifles, especially immature designs which haven't had all their kinks worked out yet, or a Glock to the lion's share of competing handguns out there. I'm not saying these specific weapons are their own respective best in class, but they _are_ enduring designs which still perform more reliably than most of their competitors.
@@BeansAndWeens Did _you_ forget about my mention of the AR-15 and AK, also very old platforms which _do_ perform well nowadays, or are you just upset that I think the 1911 is an obsolete design as a service pistol? It's pretty much good for competition shooting now, and that's really about it. It's not really a practical choice for EDC or military/LE duty, not when you have cheaper, more reliable designs available. Which just so happen to be newer.
@@Phoenix-214 bruh I couldn't careless about an AR or an AK, the bolt action is literally well over 100 years old and is still used and in fact so are knifes, yeah 1911 are outdated now who cares? its not broken just obsolete and that doesn't make it useless.
What a beast, its kind of a mindbreaker when the shows takes gravity into design of these ships and it completely puts all previous ships with artificial gravity in other shows to shame
I like having both. There's nothing sexy about your whole crew having their brains mushed sitting in acceleration couches though, so I understand why other sci fi lean so heavily on inertial dampeners and antigrav (Honor Harrington comes to mind) It does work perfectly in the expanse though, since it's so near future and rock hard sci fi
in fairness, I think part of why the Expanse team did it was Spacedock rallying people to keep the Expanse on the air. they probably felt they owed Spacedock, thus this collab.
pendraco2000 I doubt they feel they own him, but more of a Win-win situation where the fans get a expanded universe and spacedock gets the traffic from the weekly search of the sneak peeks.
hey, Isaid "probably," and it doesn't hurt the show's ratings either. that said, if you're looking closely, a lot of the ships he's covered actually showed up early in the Expanse, just never explained in Detail, like the UNN Nathan Hale (Leonidas Class Battleship, season 2), the MCRN Yangtze (Morrigan Class Patrol Dessie), and so on.
Why oh why am I so passionate about space ship engineering? I love to hear what kind of engines, weapons or armor a ship has, how big or small it is, how it would do in fights, it's role in all out battle, and everything else.. I just can't get enough of it! Though ofcourse it's fiction, I do highly prefer spaceships that are made with known science in mind, to make it seem as realistic and believable as possible. Besides the Expanse, Battlestar Galactica and Mass Effect are really good at that as well!
Mars and Earth have two different sets of issues, and at the start of "The Expanse," Earth and Mars were friendly with each other, at least friendly enough that they weren't considering going after each other any time soon. In fact, the usual balance of power was "Earth and Mars as feuding brothers, but still brothers with the OPA being an occasional issue." Earth has the depth of it's economy, but also has a massive amount of sheer SPACE to occupy. You have to assume that for every ship out on patrol, you have at least three ships total-one on deployment, one either going to or leaving the deployment area, and one back at base getting fixed. More likely, you will need four or five ships for every ship out on patrol, so the UN Navy has to make sure their equipment has endurance and reliance and capability, at the cost of "gosh-wow" capabilities. Mostly because those "gosh-wow" capabilities tend to have shorter endurance and longer repair and refit times than reliability. Mars, on the other hand, HAS to rely on "gosh-wow." They need to make every kilo of gear work at least twice as hard at best, because they don't have the depth of manpower and resources that Earth has. The expense of "gosh-wow" means that they have to make the most of every bit of gear and soldier. Earth has to be able to support and protect their resources In the Belt and Outer System, so that means you need a lot of ships that are capable. But, this means that they will have a lot of hulls that are good at small missions, but not large ones. Mars has to be able to rely upon quality in an effort to overcome quantity. But, that quality cannot come at the price of not having enough quantity to deal with attrition against an enemy.
Further Adding to Mars issues...They went for the “gosh-wow” In order to give their people pride in the Navy.....But at the end of the day, the UNN doesn’t need impressive battleships, Everything in the expanse mounts missiles....And the UNN has far more missile platforms than the MCRN has battleships. It’s actually kind of sad to see what happened to the MCRN after the war, Their proud ships went to the breaking yard Because enough people wanted to leave that Mars couldn’t sustain the already smaller size of their navy Compared to Earth.
I think that this is a testament to the outstanding work you've done with Spacedock. That you've acquired fans among the production staff of The Expanse is just remarkable!! Now that the show has been renewed, thanks to the efforts of fans like yourself getting the word out, I look forward to more of the videos. I hope they continue to collaborate with on many more ships from the show! Thanks Daniel !!
I am so happy that Alcon decided to work with you on this. You really deserve this, Daniel. I think it's very interesting to learn more about the UNN ships. What's the difference between a Dreadnought and a Battleship in The Expanse? One tiny bit of criticism: Cut the beeping sound when you bring in the text. It distracts from your voice.
This ship provides yet another iten in the list of reasons why I love this show. So much of science fiction is predicated on the suspension of disbelief, but the way that nearly everything in this show is designed leaves virtually no disbelief to suspend.
Not quite...Weakness: Being too stupid to deploy your picket craft to screen the vessel...And subsequently been taken by surprise by a micrometeorite shower and then shot in the ass by Belter missiles because you didn’t deploy a picket through the ring gate. Note: Getting shot in the ass might actually be a critical flaw in the Martian banisher integrated targeting system.
One of the most flashy armaments that I always love are point defense, I know as a tactician one should always employ a variety of weapons to deal with multiple situations, but I always loved the swarm tactics and simply overwhelming enemy with numbers and small but numerous firepower to ensure supremacy.
It's because of this channel that I binge-watched "The Expanse" and caught up with the series. I don't know whether to praise you for turning me on to the series or curse you for turning me on to the series. I'm hooked now, so take whichever you want.
Jack Parker everything has such a solid tangible feel to it. It just really makes it seem like you could just get behind the controls if any of these ships and just take right off. a lot of people use the Expression show don't tell but the expanse is found a great way to do both.
John Flynn I think they'll be ok. The level of quality that the Expanse represents is impossible to ignore. They may in fact successfully branch out to an entirely new audience. I did sound rather negative in that previous post. I guess I should be grateful that at least they went to Amazon Prime and not CBS All Access. LOL
Jameson Dymond You didn’t think you’d find a person who makes videos on space games including a series heavily inspired by the expanse watching an expanse video on a sci-fi channel?
I am so glad everybody jumped in to save this show, and that Amazon took up the job. Man it's so hard to keep show's like this alive for some reason and I don't know why. I sent that info that Spacedock left on the notification video that the show was in trouble as soon as I could. So many people raced to support the show it was really amazing . I got messages from people they went to the site I posted as soon as the saw that there was something being done about the show's removal.
This is the most legit thing I’ve ever seen on TH-cam. How amazing that your channel is now official Canon of one of the best sci-fi shows ever and the best one of very recent memory. I had no idea that I was as in love with ships and their design and functionality as I am. Thank for making this channel and making me aware of my own passions.
The Expanse physics mechanics and treatment of space is much better and accurate with the reality. The series has the best designed ships in a series leaving behind the 'Star Trek' space opera tradition. The Expanse needs a good video game made by Insomniac or any other responsible developer like Naughty Dog in collaboration with those who made Elite Dangerous. The Neue These and the expanse are a good revival to space and fleet battles well known in Homeworld and Homeworld 2, games ahead of their time. Spacedock, this is a library of details and videos needed to catalog the rich lore of the Expanse. Excellent job.
I'm SO HAPPY for you, this is so cool! I can't imagine how amazing it must be to collaborate with The Expanse team, not to mention it being such a favourite. I'd be equal parts nervous and ecstatic.
Shaffer : "Let's hope her outsides hold up better than her insides." Souther : "She won't let us down. There's a reason we don't put these old girls out to pasture." Shaffer : "Budget cuts." Souther : [to a hull panel] "Agatha, don't listen to them. They'll learn to love you." Love how they gave the ship its character in less than a minute.
Is it weird that I can see how it could be done? Pressurized reservoir for the water, feeds through heat coils (think 'on demand' water heater) to heat it, into a detachable canister with the grounds using the reservoir pressure to push the fluid through the grounds (would need to be a slow rate for proper brewing), via a special fitting into a sealed bottle (unless you can figure out a way to keep caf in a cup at low G).
Thank you for introducing me to this series. I did share the 'Save The Expanse' video and similar videos i found on Facebook even though i hadn't started the series yet. I just picked up the book series on audible, i am only on the first few chapters and i already love it. Jefferson Mays does a good job narrating it.
Great job, I absolutely love The Expanse and Amazon saving it guarantees I renew our Amazon Prime subscription, which I was actually debating when they announced that they would be picking up the series, hopefully they put a little more money into it, I mean it's sort of been on a bit of a shoestring, from what I've read, but they have done an amazing job so far, so maybe with a bit more funding they can go even further and show us even more than they already have, not to mention without the need to save space for commercials maybe each episode will be a bit longer, and hopefully have more episodes per season, and I have to think that more will be better for this series (just imagine, season 3 at a full 20 hours! Yeah I know I'm dreaming, but if you are going to dream, dream big!) As an added side benefit future seasons will be able to view the show as it is best watched, by binging on it. This will give us the perfect excuse to rewatch the entire series at least once a year.
I will say thanks to the expanse I now have a love for thrust based gravity ships and now I know the name of this beast. I hope to see more of this in the future and maybe even some tech of the expanse like the golaith power armor of the MMC and the UNN's counterpart to that power armor (i think the wiki called it the reaper or something)
I've been thinking. We all know the MCRN has the technologically superior ships, but what about the crews? An Earther crew could fly at 1g indefinatley without tiring while Marians would need extensive training to do the same thing but would probably, eventually get too tired for 1g as well. Earthers could also handle high g burns and maneouvers better than Martians or Belters since their bodies as much better suited for such things. Just something that made me think.
@@frankeinfish I would say they remind me of the Cybrans in aesthetics only. In terms of politics goals, i'd say the Cybrans are more similar to the OPA, in the sense they want freedom and independence. The UEF is still pretty analogous to the UN in this though.
The loss of the Donnager was Mars' "Bismark" moment. In spite of its incredible firepower, defenses, and capabilities, no high value asset should EVER travel unescorted. Numbers and ambushes have claimed MANY a single, high value, irreplaceable target over the course of history and the Donnager was no different. She was taken on by surprise and defeated by a group of enemies she mistakenly thought she was better than. The cost of building a Donnager class was extremely high, and her loss almost certainly hurt Mars in her upcoming war with Earth. It never should have been out there on its own, waiting for a group of ambushers to destroy her.
She wasn’t traveling unescorted...she had a frigate and two destroyers with her. Now her sister at the ring gate was incredibly stupid not to deploy those forces. That probably would’ve saved her.
@@Matt-yg8ub To be fair, at that point, Mars had scrapped many of it's ships, and lost entire fleets of ships to either the Free Navy, or the rogue martians. Along with that, both of the inner planets had been attacked, and while Mars definitly recieved a lesser attack, they'd still have to recall ships to protect their own space much like earth did. To be honest, the reason why there were only three battleships there is because that was likely all Earth and Mars could actually keep there, even if they wanted to give them an escort fleet.
@@horationelson2440 That still does not excuse the lack of deployed escorts. It’s even a single ship had been sent through the ring gate, Marco’s attack would have failed.
@@Matt-yg8ub Tbh Marco is very clever individual, everything is perfect timing and all according to the plan. Like he knows when those micro meteor storms hit and heavily damaged three battleships. Not to mention the former OPAS Behemoth Backstabbed the MCRN Sagarmatha.
@@voidkat4202 Too clever. That attack had too many moving pieces that had to go exactly right. Everything went exactly right from Marco and everything went exactly wrong for the Allied Navy’s.
Ever looked at the ships from the classic I-WAR computer games. Check out the impressive cinematics from the games. The Expanse always reminded me of the I-War games both have a similar style.
I don't know what will be more interesting, if the Nathan Hale and Scirocco classes or the smaller ships, like the Scipio Africanus, the "damn PT boat" Jimenez and the crippled MCRN craft where they rescue the three guys earlier this season.
Da Inyalowdas tink dat dey ah da winnahs of da war. Dey built da systahm on ta backs of beltahs. We ah deir slaves, barely humun. Dey don't know what we ah capable of. WE AH DA FUTAH, BERATNAS! [translated from belt patois] The (insulting term for "inners) think that they are the winners of the war. They built the system on the backs of belters. We are their slaves, barely human. They don't know what we are capable of. WE ARE THE FUTURE, BROTHERS!
For the longest time (really since whichever episode the Agatha King first appeared in mainly Season 3), I thought the Truman class was at least 450 meters in height/length. But 376? No wonder it's common knowledge that any Martian battleship is larger than its UN counterpart. Also, there is the other UNN battleship class, the Xerxes class. Is that books-only for now? Or are they going to add it to the TV series eventually?
The Thomas Prince was a Xerxes-class in the book but the show has it as a Truman-class, so i don't think the Xerxes-class will be making an appearance in the show.
Shaftoe The Nathan Hale is even smaller, below 300 mts in lenght, it is more of a cruiser, there is some artwork around comparing it with the Donnager, Tycho, Nauvoo, Cant, Anubis, Roci, etc
With a width like that, putting it into a spin gives you some gravity even when not under thrust. It would be useful to have some medbays set up for such a contingency...
I have some questions in regards to some aspects of The Expanse that always confused me. Now my knowledge on this kind of matter is limited, so I apologise in advance if it turns out to be rather silly questions. In any case, I shall put forward my queries. The first one is, I always thought that railguns were meant to be long range engagement weapons but, while I haven't seen the latest season, every time I've seen railguns being used, it as always been as close quarter battles (as we can see on the aptly named "CQB" episode in Season 1). That being said, wouldn't, for that role, regular ballistic cannons, as we see in nowadays ships, be more efficient, both cost and power wise? For me it seems that the power required for something that works with firing a cannon shell would be a lot less, and a lot cheaper, then something that would require magnetically acceleration of a projectile. The second question is, as the long range combat seems relegated to torpedos, and they seem to always be fired in small bunches or clusters, wouldn't torpedo interception, or even combat against smaller vessels, be better done by using some sort of fast firing flak guns/cannons instead of, what seems to be, miniguns? I would think a few repeated blasts, even if not direct hits, would be enough to stagger and even damage incoming torpedos. In any case, once more, I apologise if the questions are a bit on the dumb side. Just kinda curious about what you guys think about it.
I know I’m a year late, but whatever. Railguns probably have the advantage in space because railgun shells are just chunks of metal; they don’t need to carry their propellant with them. In space, every kilogram counts. The extra power spent firing the railgun is probably balanced out by not needing to carry around that extra weight. Second question. In space, there is no atmosphere to propagate a shockwave. That means that you need a direct hit, because explosions don’t really work in space. Edit: there are probably more reasons, but that’s all I can think of right now.
@@renkalan8587 about the flak question, your half right, there is no shock wave but that's not how flak works in the first place, rather it is an explosive shell designed not to directly hit its target but to detonate near it and fill the surrounding space (no pun intended) with shrapnel, that shrapnel is the deadly part, and it would infact be even MORE deadly in space, and that is probably why they don't use Flak in the Expanse, the shrapnel from each flack shell will just keep going forever or until it hits SOMETHING, not caring about friendly fire. simply put, Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest son of a bitch in space =P
This is late, but that's ok - knowledge waits for no one. Railguns are indeed used for long-range, unguided engagements. Yes, in CQB as well; put into account, however, that close quarter battles in *The Expanse* are not close at all; it would mean anything from red-zones of *1 km* to yellow-zones of up to *500 km* . Now, on to your points... 1) No. A railgun is light years more efficient in terms of design and ergonomics. Ballistic cannons as we know it only serve to burden the engines with added mass from propellants, materials, cores, external radiators etc. A railgun simply uses a pair of parallel electromagnetic rails to propel a dense, *2 kg* slug to velocities in excess of *6 km/s* The only issues would come from power cycling and allocation, 'dirty' heat sinks, and rail erosion from prolonged firing. 2) You could argue that flak would work. However, CIWS systems work better due to the guns firing in one field of view. Flak would explode and send shrapnel across the targeted area; in space, with no resistance and near-constant momentum, this is bad for both sides.
I'll say, _The Expanse_ has some pretty kickass ship designs. Goes to show that even in hard sci-fi settings, you don't need these huge blocks with some giant engines strapped to the back.
Love all the discussion this has brought about. Just keep in mind Mars' per capita everything is better than Earth. Better gear but a lot less of it. Look at how long it takes our military (U.S.) to upgrade anything. And that's with a massive budget. Now imagine more bureaucracy and less money with a massive fleet to keep spaceworthy. Mars has a decidedly easier job to keep a smaller newer fleet up to snuff with more money to do so (per ship).
Is the artwork for private eyes only? North Front Studio did a magnificent job with other Expanse artwork, especially the Donnager and Tycho Station. I'd love to add the Truman-class to my wallpaper collection.
not even one dislike! congratz impressive, exclusive new image and information. Such a priviledge ! also, The Expanse is even realistic in the number of crew, 300 meters and around a 1000 crew, seems appropriate. Compared to many other sci-fy show where even a kilometer long ship will host 250 persons
This is the beginning of something great, I can tell. Congratulations on the partnership with the actual VFX team from the show, I can only imagine how awesome that must feel. One question I have though, what does "farren-pattern" mean in reference to the rail guns?
Well done as usual, Spacedock Team. I also continue to love your music choices. Which reminds me, any chance we might see anything about the ACU'S or Experimental Units of Supreme Commander?
It's because they are slowing down. If, for example, a ship is going from Earth to Mars, the ship will accelerate to the half way point. At that point, it will flip over to use its drive engines to slow it down.
Hey I'm sure someone has covered this at some point, but why don't more ships in the Expanse universe mount reverse thrusters? I understand with smaller ships but the Truman looks like it could mount more engines facing forward inbetween the rear-facing ones. I get it's not the aesthetic they were going for but seems far more practical for warships...
Reminds me of the briefing on GTVA Colossus. " The Colossus wields more firepower than five Orion-class destroyers combined. Sixty fighter and bomber wings are housed in its vast hangar and its crew numbers over thirty thousand. Among its major contractors are industry giants Triton Dynamics, Subach-Innes, and the Akheton Corporation. The alliance now wages war on multiple fronts: in Deneb, Alpha Centuri, Epsilon Pegasi, and the mysterious nebula beyond Gamma Draconis. Once deployed the Colossus will end these conflicts swiftly and decisively. If ever the Shivans return to threaten our worlds we will be ready to face the challenge, securing peace for today and for generations to come."
What happens to all the rail gun rounds after they have left the battle field? Do the continue on and make holes in the universe somewhere at random? Is there some auto destruct feature? Blowing it up would be a terrible idea but deploying a solar sail to slow it down and make it visible on sensors.... better then waking up one day to find a whole lot of holes in your house on earth or listen to another news story of a ship randomly perforated by battle space junk .... nothing starts a war faster than stray bullets capable of passing through an atmosphere and delivering a explosion the size of a small nuclear explosion anywhere at random ....
Welcome to all you Expanse fans who are new to Spacedock!
Be sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell to keep up with this series as it continues.
Huge thanks to The Expanse team for this fantastic opportunity, I hope you all enjoy this first episode. :)
This is the collaboration of all our dreams!
I am very excited for this series, and the first installment definitely doesn't disappoint! I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest of this series!
Spacedock just wondering but are you going to break down the fight between the roci and the UN ship in s3 ep2?
You should you know whisper in some ears over there about some diecast or buildable models of these ships :))
Can we have the Scirroco Class next?
"A railgun? That's practically stone age."
"Well, which would you prefer, a non-existent laser weapon or a well aimed rock?"
danieldb631 lasers aren't fiction anymore. The top militaries will have them on the field by mid 2020s
borg111 Not exactly. While lasers have been proven to be extremely reliable in niche roles, there still a very early technology with many practical problems that might not be solved in decades. I’m pretty sure they have laser weapons in the Expanse, though apart from very niche roles, they might be outclassed in most categories when it comes to rail guns, missiles and PDC’s at least in ship-to-ship combat
@@borg111 lasers are also pretty wasteful. you can use the same energy to shoot a mildly powerful beam to accelerate a slug at devastating speeds.
@@baderminahdin9450 Lasers move at the speed of light, which practically guarantees a hit unlike a slug moved by kinetic force. Also, lasers don't utilize as much energy today (U.S. Navy says it can fire a laser that would cost a dollar per shot), why would they cost more or be harder to shoot 200 years in the future? Having an energy based weapon unaffected by gravity, instantly hits your target, no ammo concerns, no possibility of jamming due to no moving parts, and no way of intercepting the beam once fired is better than any kinetic based weapon. Sure, railguns work well for close range, but is horribly inferior at greater distances as well.
@@brandonm2286 If we have lasers today that can destroy drones and working on prototypes that can shoot down missles today, we should comfortably have lasers as weapons on ships 200 years in the future.
One thing that I haven't seen talked about in the books or show is something I've been pondering for a while now: is the UNNs other main advantage in space the ability to go faster for longer without the need for acceleration drugs? Earther crews can comfortably stay at 1g acceleration/deceleration where the MCRN crews would be feeling the strain without extensive training and conditioning. They could probably even sustain a 2g burn for days when necessary without much compensation, where the bulk of an MCRN crew would need to be in crash couches and on "the juice".
Dunno if there's a source for this but I presume the MCRN builds their ships and trains their sailors to operate at 1g. In the show it's mentioned that the MMC trains at 1g.
Chian MMC does, and I'm sure they also probably are preferential to earthborn immigrants who pass a rigorous security screening. But those are the elite of the elite, and they probably also undergo a massive amount of testing and conditioning (that probably includes bone and muscle augmentation or even gene therapy) in order to make sure they can operate in those conditions, that the average sailor or Petty Officer aboard ship doesn't have.
I would prefer to presume that the MCRN has the same 1g regimen, since it would be a fatal tactical disadvantage if your navy was restricted to 0.3g manoeuvres against enemy vessels at 1g.
+Chian
it still won't help much compared to people, who were *grown* at 1G. That's why the piece about _"Martian Marines being so cool that they train at 2G"_ makes me want to half cringe half facepalm.
For trained Earth native humans we'd be talking about strains comparable to air force pilots during maneuvers ie up to or even above 6G for main crew and 9G and far above for actual pilots. And continuous accelerations can easily be up to 3G BEFORE use of drugs, special G suits and proper seats. With all of those... well, current record for staying alive and *conscious* is 45G for "Earther".
Likewise Mars would never be able to match production and population levels of Earth, but that's where author's willing suspension of disbelief comes in for the sake of squeezing in a plot:(
I always imagined that the MCR government would mandate the wearing of weights to simulate Earth-equivalent weight at least up into adulthood.
The Martians laughed at the Truman's terribleness, us Earthers laughed at the Donnager's debris - Me, 20 seconds ago.
And the Belters will be cheering next season at the Earth's debris.
@@Nyx_2142 Yo spoilers bro
@@Nyx_2142
Laconians:
*laughs in Pallas' particle debris*
And high cost
Constant breakdown and constantly get rekt by smaller MCRN vessels
Even a Scirocco can seriously damage Truman
Laugh in MCRN
i love the "outdated but rugged" designs from a lot of science fiction settings
built to last > cutting edge maintenance hog
The Dreadnaught class in Star Wars for example.
@@casacara Realistic precedent, too. Basically how the Soviet Union's tanks ended up trumping Germany's, or how militants with old cold war era weaponry can stand up to modern-equipped militaries.
@@seventh-hydra Crazy how badly this comment aged lmao.
@@Paytrolah Lmfao yeah, very true. Though there's also a lot of factors that play into it.
Drunk rant inc. Don't even bother reading, just venting because my mind is literally boggled by shit-tier Russia is.
Their modern armaments aren't the same pragmatic philosophy. They're "We want to try to emulate the West and be advanced but we don't have the technology or quality control to actually do it." And so all of their modern stuff is literal ass-cheeks. Like actual downgrades despite being better on paper, because they're too overcomplicated for their crap training regimen, too finicky to intuitively use in the field, reliant on systems that don't work, and compromises were made to try and upgrade these platforms.
Like, Ukraine stalled them out with older, outdated Soviet stuff early on, before the Western aid really started flowing in. That's how bad their "upgrades" and doctrines are.
Speaking of doctrine... Their leadership is like literally 2003 Iraq levels of incompetent. I mean they have been for a while, they couldn't even beat Chechnya until they just used artillery to flatten over 90% of Grozny. Nepotistic Generals who spend too much time sipping their own Kool-Aid about how great Russia is, and drilling for parades instead of training for warfare. The amount of lives they just casually throw away like they still have 280 million people and not 140 million. Seems like they haven't even attempted to come up with new strategies in the last 80 years.
Glad for it though, since I support Ukraine. But holy shit. Embarrassing.
RIP Admiral Southers
Finally some clear closeups of the Truman class. At first I thought it was ugly... And then it grew on me.
This is interesting to finally get a close look at some UNN vessels, since so far it seemed like we were being given the impression that Martian technology was superior in every way and that UN military vessels and equipment were cheap garbage, with the UNN relying purely on raw numbers to win any engagment.
I'm starting to see the dynamic more like that of US vs Soviet military hardware during the Cold War, where the US went for "The Best" hardware with lots of bells and whistles, while the Soviets favoured simple, reliable hardware that did the job and could be churned out quick and cheap en-mass.
Glad I'm not the only one who notice that.
It's a predictable outcome of arm race, though. If two technological equivalent nations compete with one another, the one that cannot match the number of the other side will try to compensate for the number with individual superiority.
It's actually something characters debate about in Drive(the short story about solomon epstein). Their historical analog is germans and and soviets in WW II though.
#LennoxPoodle Presumeably the debate is around German VS Soviet tanks in WW2. The debate frequently goes that the Germans produced the King Tiger, arguably the best tank of the entire war in terms of its sheer power and sophistication, but they never had many of them. The Soviets on the otherhand, produced the T-37 series, a machine that lacked the awesome raw power of the King Tiger, but was no slouch as a warmachine, but more importantly, could be turned out by the hundreds every single day, while the German's struggled to turn out one King Tiger per week.
I'd say another good comparison would be the M-16 vs the AK-47. On paper the M-16 was an excellent weapon, much of the early issues regarding jamming being due more to a claim that the weapon was so good it didn't need cleaning and so cleaning kits were not issued. How ever, the AK-47 was a much cheaper weapon to produce, that while it lacked the M-16's impressive accuracy and effective range, was more than adequate during a typical firefight and more to the point, was legendarily solid and reliable, requiring very little maintainence to remain operational and very eay to repair when something did go wrong. As a result, modern decendents of the M-16 are really only issued in US forces and a few other nations, where as there are more AK-47s and its decendents around the world than any other military firearm ever produced.
Yeah, in the short story they are in more general terms. The Martians get compared to the NAZIs (by themselfes!!!!) which according to them had the superior technologies but were beaten by the masses the red army could field. Essentially their conclusion is that quantity beats quality.
The whole story can be read on the official website (it's only 7 pages): www.syfy.com/theexpanse/drive/prequel.php
Quantity beats Quality *Sometimes* but not always. I think in terms of an actual war, a dust up between the UNN and MCRN would be a close run thing that could go either way, especially depending on which side has the better commanders, who know how to use what they have to work with.
How gorgeous was that Parralax Shot at the end there!? Some of Alasdair's editing wizardry on display :)
The shot was beautiful indeed. I like that these pictures show the ship's colour scheme as well, that often gets lost in the show itself.
I really love this video, one of the best so far! I hope you can continue your work with the Expanse team so more videos of this caliber can be expected. Also, I hope you are aware you are now basically condemned to do a versus video on Donnager against Truman. ;)
The Donnager would win in a one-on-one battle, even without its two frigates. They all but blatantly state in the books and on the show that the Martians have better stuff, though the UNN has more ships. Holden even says in the books that the only way the UN could possibly win a war with Mars would be to "...hit first, and hit hard."
So if you did an EckhartsLadder-style comparison, with crews and captains at equal skill and with all other personnel and environmental factors being equal, then the Donnager would win; longer range, more mass, significantly larger dimensions, better engines (presumably, given the Truman-class apparently needs six engines to comparably maneuver a smaller ship), more crew, etc. etc. I'm not sure it would be a comparison worth making.
Yes, but the UN's ships aren't meant for a 1 on 1 battle with the Donnager, especially as their are so few ships in it's class. It's sort of like the USSR and the US, the US went with smaller but better equipped military but the Soviets went with less advanced equipment but in much larger numbers. Thankfully we never really found out which was a better idea, although this would surely be on a case by case basis, it didn't work for the German's in WW2, but it has in other conflicts so who knows.
He said "Donnager vs. Truman," which implies a one-on-one fight. If he simply meant a realistic battlefleet, see my reply again. Martian stuff far outpaces UN equivalents. Yes, there's less of it, but it's apparently objectively true that even given a clear numbers advantage the UN will always loose to Mars unless they glass the planet itself or fire protomolecule soldiers into every capital ship. I haven't seen the show yet (but now I can because it's on Amazon!), but in the books, Holden says even the Roci could take on a UN capital ship in a fight if they get in a lucky shot (while being chased by the ships sent to Avasarala; he does contend that they wouldn't be able to take on all four ships chasing them).
The Germans lost the Russian front in WWII because of poor strategic and tactical decisions, not to mention the horrific weather. The way Russia was fighting was only sustainable because of foreign aid and German mistakes.
I understand all that, on all the points you raise, but my point was, a few uber powerful ships are all well and good, but without supporting fleets they are vulnerable to, in effect, wolf packs of much smaller and less capable ships. A single hyena would loose to a lion in a heartbeat, but with it's pack they can take down a lion.
Technological sophistication is sometimes no match for an old, reliable design.
So this is the m1911 of ships then?
The 1911's day has come and gone. It _is_ over a century old, after all. A fair number of newer handguns are more reliable. In fact, the 1911 is gaining notoriety for being a jam-o-matic with the wrong ammunition, especially when it's not an original GI-issue Colt model, or an often very expensive, high-quality clone. I think a better comparison might be something like an AK or even a well-built custom AR-15 to a fair number of current-day rifles, especially immature designs which haven't had all their kinks worked out yet, or a Glock to the lion's share of competing handguns out there. I'm not saying these specific weapons are their own respective best in class, but they _are_ enduring designs which still perform more reliably than most of their competitors.
@@Phoenix-214 well you both right and wrong
why did you both forget about the M2 fifty cal?
or lets not forget the age old design of a god-damn knife?
@@BeansAndWeens Did _you_ forget about my mention of the AR-15 and AK, also very old platforms which _do_ perform well nowadays, or are you just upset that I think the 1911 is an obsolete design as a service pistol? It's pretty much good for competition shooting now, and that's really about it. It's not really a practical choice for EDC or military/LE duty, not when you have cheaper, more reliable designs available. Which just so happen to be newer.
@@Phoenix-214
bruh I couldn't careless about an AR or an AK, the bolt action is literally well over 100 years old and is still used and in fact so are knifes, yeah 1911 are outdated now who cares? its not broken just obsolete and that doesn't make it useless.
@@BeansAndWeens or a spear.
What a beast, its kind of a mindbreaker when the shows takes gravity into design of these ships and it completely puts all previous ships with artificial gravity in other shows to shame
I like having both. There's nothing sexy about your whole crew having their brains mushed sitting in acceleration couches though, so I understand why other sci fi lean so heavily on inertial dampeners and antigrav (Honor Harrington comes to mind)
It does work perfectly in the expanse though, since it's so near future and rock hard sci fi
Venerable Dreadnought... Even in Death I still serve^^ For The Emperor!
*spoiler*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the alien lifeform virus/bioweapon that's deployed en mass at the end of season 1...ITS TYRANIDS
.....Whats that smell? That smelly smell?
-what?
Heresy........... XENOS HERESYYYYY
THE EMPEROR PROTECTS!
Yes, Emperor Avasarala.
Wooh so you're now officially working with the people behind the expanse? congrats! :)
Gotta drum up that support so that the Expanse doesn't get canceled again!
in fairness, I think part of why the Expanse team did it was Spacedock rallying people to keep the Expanse on the air. they probably felt they owed Spacedock, thus this collab.
pendraco2000 I doubt they feel they own him, but more of a Win-win situation where the fans get a expanded universe and spacedock gets the traffic from the weekly search of the sneak peeks.
hey, Isaid "probably," and it doesn't hurt the show's ratings either. that said, if you're looking closely, a lot of the ships he's covered actually showed up early in the Expanse, just never explained in Detail, like the UNN Nathan Hale (Leonidas Class Battleship, season 2), the MCRN Yangtze (Morrigan Class Patrol Dessie), and so on.
Why oh why am I so passionate about space ship engineering? I love to hear what kind of engines, weapons or armor a ship has, how big or small it is, how it would do in fights, it's role in all out battle, and everything else.. I just can't get enough of it!
Though ofcourse it's fiction, I do highly prefer spaceships that are made with known science in mind, to make it seem as realistic and believable as possible. Besides the Expanse, Battlestar Galactica and Mass Effect are really good at that as well!
“Official Expanse Canon” I like the sound of that.
Mars and Earth have two different sets of issues, and at the start of "The Expanse," Earth and Mars were friendly with each other, at least friendly enough that they weren't considering going after each other any time soon. In fact, the usual balance of power was "Earth and Mars as feuding brothers, but still brothers with the OPA being an occasional issue."
Earth has the depth of it's economy, but also has a massive amount of sheer SPACE to occupy. You have to assume that for every ship out on patrol, you have at least three ships total-one on deployment, one either going to or leaving the deployment area, and one back at base getting fixed. More likely, you will need four or five ships for every ship out on patrol, so the UN Navy has to make sure their equipment has endurance and reliance and capability, at the cost of "gosh-wow" capabilities. Mostly because those "gosh-wow" capabilities tend to have shorter endurance and longer repair and refit times than reliability.
Mars, on the other hand, HAS to rely on "gosh-wow." They need to make every kilo of gear work at least twice as hard at best, because they don't have the depth of manpower and resources that Earth has. The expense of "gosh-wow" means that they have to make the most of every bit of gear and soldier.
Earth has to be able to support and protect their resources In the Belt and Outer System, so that means you need a lot of ships that are capable. But, this means that they will have a lot of hulls that are good at small missions, but not large ones.
Mars has to be able to rely upon quality in an effort to overcome quantity. But, that quality cannot come at the price of not having enough quantity to deal with attrition against an enemy.
Further Adding to Mars issues...They went for the “gosh-wow” In order to give their people pride in the Navy.....But at the end of the day, the UNN doesn’t need impressive battleships, Everything in the expanse mounts missiles....And the UNN has far more missile platforms than the MCRN has battleships.
It’s actually kind of sad to see what happened to the MCRN after the war, Their proud ships went to the breaking yard Because enough people wanted to leave that Mars couldn’t sustain the already smaller size of their navy Compared to Earth.
They're a parallel for NATO, WTO, and developing nations. Except, if WTO was actually balanced with more power.
I think that this is a testament to the outstanding work you've done with Spacedock. That you've acquired fans among the production staff of The Expanse is just remarkable!! Now that the show has been renewed, thanks to the efforts of fans like yourself getting the word out, I look forward to more of the videos. I hope they continue to collaborate with on many more ships from the show! Thanks Daniel !!
I am so happy that Alcon decided to work with you on this. You really deserve this, Daniel.
I think it's very interesting to learn more about the UNN ships. What's the difference between a Dreadnought and a Battleship in The Expanse?
One tiny bit of criticism: Cut the beeping sound when you bring in the text. It distracts from your voice.
This ship provides yet another iten in the list of reasons why I love this show. So much of science fiction is predicated on the suspension of disbelief, but the way that nearly everything in this show is designed leaves virtually no disbelief to suspend.
Weaknesses: surprise micro meteor showers
I was screaming at the screen at that scene lol. Such a bitch move by inaros. But effective
Not quite...Weakness: Being too stupid to deploy your picket craft to screen the vessel...And subsequently been taken by surprise by a micrometeorite shower and then shot in the ass by Belter missiles because you didn’t deploy a picket through the ring gate.
Note: Getting shot in the ass might actually be a critical flaw in the Martian banisher integrated targeting system.
One of the most flashy armaments that I always love are point defense, I know as a tactician one should always employ a variety of weapons to deal with multiple situations, but I always loved the swarm tactics and simply overwhelming enemy with numbers and small but numerous firepower to ensure supremacy.
Expanse has the best names for ships iv'e seen from any sifi franchise. Donnager, Hammurabi, Rocinante, etc.
I personally like "Nostalgia for Infinity" from Revelation Space alot. But Donnager is definetly great.
Weeping Somnambulist and not just because Apophis was the pilot
Agatha king, Edward Israel
Morrigan class is probably my favorite
@@kevinjustin7646 Heart of the Tempest? ;)
It's because of this channel that I binge-watched "The Expanse" and caught up with the series. I don't know whether to praise you for turning me on to the series or curse you for turning me on to the series. I'm hooked now, so take whichever you want.
Supreme Commander music always gives me goosebumps for some reason... Truman Class is really sexy for how decrepid most of UN fleet looks.
How do i like this multiple times? Having footage and concepts from the original show makes this so very awesome!
Congrats on be able to produce canon content for the Expanses.
Love the Expanse! Can't wait for more videos on it.
“Farren” pattern railguns, “Redfield” PDCs, I see what you did there
Love the Expanse 😍😍😍😍😍
Jack Parker everything has such a solid tangible feel to it. It just really makes it seem like you could just get behind the controls if any of these ships and just take right off. a lot of people use the Expression show don't tell but the expanse is found a great way to do both.
It was cancelled by Syfy but immediately picked up by amazon prime, so we're getting more.
John Flynn bittersweet. While I'm glad there will be a season 4, I'm a bit annoyed by the presence of an additional pay wall.
I didn't think of it that way. Hopefully enough of the audience comes around to keep it going.
John Flynn I think they'll be ok. The level of quality that the Expanse represents is impossible to ignore. They may in fact successfully branch out to an entirely new audience. I did sound rather negative in that previous post. I guess I should be grateful that at least they went to Amazon Prime and not CBS All Access. LOL
This video is awesome! I’d love it if you made one on the MCRN Scirocco class Cruiser
TheBeardyPenguin didn’t think I’d see you here
Jameson Dymond
You didn’t think you’d find a person who makes videos on space games including a series heavily inspired by the expanse watching an expanse video on a sci-fi channel?
I didn't expect you here, i didn't know you liked the Expanse.
TheBeardyPenguin no I just didn’t expect to find you seeing as I love both of your channels
Awh thanks
I am so glad everybody jumped in to save this show, and that Amazon took up the job. Man it's so hard to keep show's like this alive for some reason and I don't know why. I sent that info that Spacedock left on the notification video that the show was in trouble as soon as I could. So many people raced to support the show it was really amazing . I got messages from people they went to the site I posted as soon as the saw that there was something being done about the show's removal.
This was fantastic! Congrats on the collaboration and I can't wait for the rest of the series!
This is the most legit thing I’ve ever seen on TH-cam. How amazing that your channel is now official Canon of one of the best sci-fi shows ever and the best one of very recent memory. I had no idea that I was as in love with ships and their design and functionality as I am. Thank for making this channel and making me aware of my own passions.
love the Supreme Commander mission music in the background.
You guys are sure playing up the salvation of the expanse franchise. And you deserve every bit of credit. Good job.
Once again, I love hearing the Supreme Commander music in your videos.
The Expanse physics mechanics and treatment of space is much better and accurate with the reality. The series has the best designed ships in a series leaving behind the 'Star Trek' space opera tradition.
The Expanse needs a good video game made by Insomniac or any other responsible developer like Naughty Dog in collaboration with those who made Elite Dangerous.
The Neue These and the expanse are a good revival to space and fleet battles well known in Homeworld and Homeworld 2, games ahead of their time.
Spacedock, this is a library of details and videos needed to catalog the rich lore of the Expanse. Excellent job.
I'm SO HAPPY for you, this is so cool!
I can't imagine how amazing it must be to collaborate with The Expanse team, not to mention it being such a favourite. I'd be equal parts nervous and ecstatic.
Shaffer : "Let's hope her outsides hold up better than her insides."
Souther : "She won't let us down. There's a reason we don't put these old girls out to pasture."
Shaffer : "Budget cuts."
Souther : [to a hull panel] "Agatha, don't listen to them. They'll learn to love you."
Love how they gave the ship its character in less than a minute.
This is all excellent. You're really hitting the big leagues now Daniel!
All good but does it have a coffee machine?.......I didn't think so 🇲🇭
Earthers live from the fake instantaneous stuff. I'm sure. Only Martians have the brains needed to develop zero-G coffee pots.
The Expanse AKA one mans heroic struggle for a good brew in the grim darkness of space.
Is it weird that I can see how it could be done? Pressurized reservoir for the water, feeds through heat coils (think 'on demand' water heater) to heat it, into a detachable canister with the grounds using the reservoir pressure to push the fluid through the grounds (would need to be a slow rate for proper brewing), via a special fitting into a sealed bottle (unless you can figure out a way to keep caf in a cup at low G).
Corwin Hyatt Dude, A+ for innovative thinking.
Corwin Hyatt. Yam Seng Beratna :)
Congrats man on this collab, It's amazing!
So glad that your love for the show has paid off in this way! Great video!
Thank you for introducing me to this series. I did share the 'Save The Expanse' video and similar videos i found on Facebook even though i hadn't started the series yet.
I just picked up the book series on audible, i am only on the first few chapters and i already love it. Jefferson Mays does a good job narrating it.
Great job, I absolutely love The Expanse and Amazon saving it guarantees I renew our Amazon Prime subscription, which I was actually debating when they announced that they would be picking up the series, hopefully they put a little more money into it, I mean it's sort of been on a bit of a shoestring, from what I've read, but they have done an amazing job so far, so maybe with a bit more funding they can go even further and show us even more than they already have, not to mention without the need to save space for commercials maybe each episode will be a bit longer, and hopefully have more episodes per season, and I have to think that more will be better for this series (just imagine, season 3 at a full 20 hours! Yeah I know I'm dreaming, but if you are going to dream, dream big!)
As an added side benefit future seasons will be able to view the show as it is best watched, by binging on it. This will give us the perfect excuse to rewatch the entire series at least once a year.
Good stuff!
The Empire and the First Order could learn something from the UNN about point defense.
Sweet! I am glad you got to do this series! Looking forward to more!
I will say thanks to the expanse I now have a love for thrust based gravity ships and now I know the name of this beast. I hope to see more of this in the future and maybe even some tech of the expanse like the golaith power armor of the MMC and the UNN's counterpart to that power armor (i think the wiki called it the reaper or something)
I've been thinking. We all know the MCRN has the technologically superior ships, but what about the crews? An Earther crew could fly at 1g indefinatley without tiring while Marians would need extensive training to do the same thing but would probably, eventually get too tired for 1g as well. Earthers could also handle high g burns and maneouvers better than Martians or Belters since their bodies as much better suited for such things. Just something that made me think.
UEF theme? Nice.
The MCRN does remind you slightly of the Cybrans....
aaaaand now I gotta go play some SupCom again, damnit.
@@frankeinfish tip of the spear, my boy. Tip of the spear
@@frankeinfish Doesn't it crash on newer systems? (I heard there was a runaway memory or some CPU bug)
@@frankeinfish ......the Belters certainly aren't akin to the Aeon Illuminate.
@@frankeinfish I would say they remind me of the Cybrans in aesthetics only. In terms of politics goals, i'd say the Cybrans are more similar to the OPA, in the sense they want freedom and independence. The UEF is still pretty analogous to the UN in this though.
Awesome. Can't wait to see you cover the Donnager or the Sirocco.
The loss of the Donnager was Mars' "Bismark" moment. In spite of its incredible firepower, defenses, and capabilities, no high value asset should EVER travel unescorted. Numbers and ambushes have claimed MANY a single, high value, irreplaceable target over the course of history and the Donnager was no different. She was taken on by surprise and defeated by a group of enemies she mistakenly thought she was better than. The cost of building a Donnager class was extremely high, and her loss almost certainly hurt Mars in her upcoming war with Earth. It never should have been out there on its own, waiting for a group of ambushers to destroy her.
She wasn’t traveling unescorted...she had a frigate and two destroyers with her. Now her sister at the ring gate was incredibly stupid not to deploy those forces. That probably would’ve saved her.
@@Matt-yg8ub To be fair, at that point, Mars had scrapped many of it's ships, and lost entire fleets of ships to either the Free Navy, or the rogue martians. Along with that, both of the inner planets had been attacked, and while Mars definitly recieved a lesser attack, they'd still have to recall ships to protect their own space much like earth did. To be honest, the reason why there were only three battleships there is because that was likely all Earth and Mars could actually keep there, even if they wanted to give them an escort fleet.
@@horationelson2440 That still does not excuse the lack of deployed escorts. It’s even a single ship had been sent through the ring gate, Marco’s attack would have failed.
@@Matt-yg8ub Tbh Marco is very clever individual, everything is perfect timing and all according to the plan. Like he knows when those micro meteor storms hit and heavily damaged three battleships. Not to mention the former OPAS Behemoth Backstabbed the MCRN Sagarmatha.
@@voidkat4202 Too clever. That attack had too many moving pieces that had to go exactly right. Everything went exactly right from Marco and everything went exactly wrong for the Allied Navy’s.
I love that you guys got to collab with the studio for these
I absolutely love the new format for breakdown videos.
Always love the channel keep up the good work. 😀
The Expanse is the BEST show.
Ever looked at the ships from the classic I-WAR computer games. Check out the impressive cinematics from the games. The Expanse always reminded me of the I-War games both have a similar style.
I got into the expanse because of you and i'm addicted. I'm super happy for you for getting this partnership. You're doing great work and I love it!
That glorious moment when Sempai notices you! Congrats on the collaboration, man!
in fairness, I think it's the fact he rallied so many expanse fans to keep the show on the air.
I don't know what will be more interesting, if the Nathan Hale and Scirocco classes or the smaller ships, like the Scipio Africanus, the "damn PT boat" Jimenez and the crippled MCRN craft where they rescue the three guys earlier this season.
This is Inyalowda propaganda.
Da Inyalowdas tink dat dey ah da winnahs of da war. Dey built da systahm on ta backs of beltahs. We ah deir slaves, barely humun. Dey don't know what we ah capable of. WE AH DA FUTAH, BERATNAS!
[translated from belt patois]
The (insulting term for "inners) think that they are the winners of the war. They built the system on the backs of belters. We are their slaves, barely human. They don't know what we are capable of. WE ARE THE FUTURE, BROTHERS!
EARTH COMES FIRST!!! o/
rob Kemp don't listen to them Agatha ...
Earth must come first!
Piss off skinny, MARS SHALL PREVAIL!!
I love that you are working with The Expanse now. This is going to be awesome.
I'm really glad you are getting to work with the expanse team.
For the longest time (really since whichever episode the Agatha King first appeared in mainly Season 3), I thought the Truman class was at least 450 meters in height/length. But 376? No wonder it's common knowledge that any Martian battleship is larger than its UN counterpart.
Also, there is the other UNN battleship class, the Xerxes class. Is that books-only for now? Or are they going to add it to the TV series eventually?
The Thomas Prince was a Xerxes-class in the book but the show has it as a Truman-class, so i don't think the Xerxes-class will be making an appearance in the show.
Raei Aman well, I haven’t gotten that far in the books yet. Makes sense though.
Shaftoe The Nathan Hale is even smaller, below 300 mts in lenght, it is more of a cruiser, there is some artwork around comparing it with the Donnager, Tycho, Nauvoo, Cant, Anubis, Roci, etc
The railguns shown from the side at 1:18 look a lot like a ww2 battleship turret, unlike the Donnager"s railguns.
Great video! So happy for you that you get to do official work for The Expanse, must be exciting as a fan.
The Pillar of Autumn of the Expanse Universe
Wow, congrats on collaborating officially with the Expanse!
Great video, nice to get some tech specs for The Expanse military vehicles. 👏
The one thing I love about The Expanse is that the ship sizes are all realistic. No 5km battleships like Star Wars nonsense.
You guys have to do a breakdown about the MCRN Scirocco and the UNN Nathan Hale.
With a width like that, putting it into a spin gives you some gravity even when not under thrust. It would be useful to have some medbays set up for such a contingency...
Brilliant design. I love the engine cluster to bits.
I have some questions in regards to some aspects of The Expanse that always confused me. Now my knowledge on this kind of matter is limited, so I apologise in advance if it turns out to be rather silly questions. In any case, I shall put forward my queries. The first one is, I always thought that railguns were meant to be long range engagement weapons but, while I haven't seen the latest season, every time I've seen railguns being used, it as always been as close quarter battles (as we can see on the aptly named "CQB" episode in Season 1). That being said, wouldn't, for that role, regular ballistic cannons, as we see in nowadays ships, be more efficient, both cost and power wise? For me it seems that the power required for something that works with firing a cannon shell would be a lot less, and a lot cheaper, then something that would require magnetically acceleration of a projectile.
The second question is, as the long range combat seems relegated to torpedos, and they seem to always be fired in small bunches or clusters, wouldn't torpedo interception, or even combat against smaller vessels, be better done by using some sort of fast firing flak guns/cannons instead of, what seems to be, miniguns? I would think a few repeated blasts, even if not direct hits, would be enough to stagger and even damage incoming torpedos.
In any case, once more, I apologise if the questions are a bit on the dumb side. Just kinda curious about what you guys think about it.
I know I’m a year late, but whatever.
Railguns probably have the advantage in space because railgun shells are just chunks of metal; they don’t need to carry their propellant with them. In space, every kilogram counts. The extra power spent firing the railgun is probably balanced out by not needing to carry around that extra weight.
Second question. In space, there is no atmosphere to propagate a shockwave. That means that you need a direct hit, because explosions don’t really work in space.
Edit: there are probably more reasons, but that’s all I can think of right now.
@@renkalan8587 about the flak question, your half right, there is no shock wave but that's not how flak works in the first place, rather it is an explosive shell designed not to directly hit its target but to detonate near it and fill the surrounding space (no pun intended) with shrapnel, that shrapnel is the deadly part, and it would infact be even MORE deadly in space, and that is probably why they don't use Flak in the Expanse, the shrapnel from each flack shell will just keep going forever or until it hits SOMETHING, not caring about friendly fire.
simply put, Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest son of a bitch in space =P
nari lutra
Oh. My mistake.
@@renkalan8587 no worries
This is late, but that's ok - knowledge waits for no one.
Railguns are indeed used for long-range, unguided engagements.
Yes, in CQB as well; put into account, however, that close quarter battles in *The Expanse* are not close at all; it would mean anything from red-zones of *1 km* to yellow-zones of up to *500 km* .
Now, on to your points...
1) No. A railgun is light years more efficient in terms of design and ergonomics. Ballistic cannons as we know it only serve to burden the engines with added mass from propellants, materials, cores, external radiators etc.
A railgun simply uses a pair of parallel electromagnetic rails to propel a dense, *2 kg* slug to velocities in excess of *6 km/s*
The only issues would come from power cycling and allocation, 'dirty' heat sinks, and rail erosion from prolonged firing.
2) You could argue that flak would work. However, CIWS systems work better due to the guns firing in one field of view.
Flak would explode and send shrapnel across the targeted area; in space, with no resistance and near-constant momentum, this is bad for both sides.
The more you talk about the Expanse the more happy you become SD and I just noticed that right now.
Question: something has been bugging me but why has no one seemed to use aerospike engine designs? Chemical laser or microwave anti missile systems?
Just finished watching season 3. Love this show so much and I think season 3 is my favourite so far.
I have been waiting on some close-up/renders of this class ever since I saw it. Please, can we get the Scirocco class next?
COOOL! CONGRATS ON THE COLAB, GUYS!
Good vid, annnnnd that Supreme Commander ost takes me back.
I'll say, _The Expanse_ has some pretty kickass ship designs. Goes to show that even in hard sci-fi settings, you don't need these huge blocks with some giant engines strapped to the back.
On amazon tomorrow finally season 3 uk!! About time. THIS IS THE BEST SHOW ON TV
Love all the discussion this has brought about. Just keep in mind Mars' per capita everything is better than Earth. Better gear but a lot less of it. Look at how long it takes our military (U.S.) to upgrade anything. And that's with a massive budget. Now imagine more bureaucracy and less money with a massive fleet to keep spaceworthy. Mars has a decidedly easier job to keep a smaller newer fleet up to snuff with more money to do so (per ship).
Maybe you will be interested in recon of "The Ring" from the expanse? Thanks
I haven't even began Season 03 of The Expanse and I'm watching this :P
Is the artwork for private eyes only? North Front Studio did a magnificent job with other Expanse artwork, especially the Donnager and Tycho Station. I'd love to add the Truman-class to my wallpaper collection.
Hot damn, Spacedock's moving up now!
I'm always more drawn to technological superiority, but this ship has an "Umf!"
I love the Supreme Commander music in the background
not even one dislike! congratz
impressive, exclusive new image and information. Such a priviledge !
also, The Expanse is even realistic in the number of crew, 300 meters and around a 1000 crew, seems appropriate. Compared to many other sci-fy show where even a kilometer long ship will host 250 persons
Thanks! My favourite vessel in The Expanse.
This is the beginning of something great, I can tell. Congratulations on the partnership with the actual VFX team from the show, I can only imagine how awesome that must feel.
One question I have though, what does "farren-pattern" mean in reference to the rail guns?
I believe it is a reference to the method used by the railgun to project the slug.
I think that farren-pattern is the brand
The fictional military contractor that produced the railguns from the Bush Naval Shipyards on Luna, the moon.
Well done as usual, Spacedock Team. I also continue to love your music choices. Which reminds me, any chance we might see anything about the ACU'S or Experimental Units of Supreme Commander?
Love The Expanse but why is the ships go with the back end first in Front?
It's because they are slowing down.
If, for example, a ship is going from Earth to Mars, the ship will accelerate to the half way point. At that point, it will flip over to use its drive engines to slow it down.
Hey I'm sure someone has covered this at some point, but why don't more ships in the Expanse universe mount reverse thrusters? I understand with smaller ships but the Truman looks like it could mount more engines facing forward inbetween the rear-facing ones. I get it's not the aesthetic they were going for but seems far more practical for warships...
Why? Would it not make more sense to just flip the ship and use the same engines for both jobs?
Nice video and I can't wait for the next expanse related one.
This is awesome! Thanks for saving this show guys!!!
You know you're going somewhere when you're working with people whom made a successful TV series. Keep it up Daniels!
Reminds me of the briefing on GTVA Colossus.
" The Colossus wields more firepower than five Orion-class destroyers combined. Sixty fighter and bomber wings are housed in its vast hangar and its crew numbers over thirty thousand. Among its major contractors are industry giants Triton Dynamics, Subach-Innes, and the Akheton Corporation. The alliance now wages war on multiple fronts: in Deneb, Alpha Centuri, Epsilon Pegasi, and the mysterious nebula beyond Gamma Draconis. Once deployed the Colossus will end these conflicts swiftly and decisively. If ever the Shivans return to threaten our worlds we will be ready to face the challenge, securing peace for today and for generations to come."
Hey...wait a second! That music is from Supreme Commander!
What happens to all the rail gun rounds after they have left the battle field?
Do the continue on and make holes in the universe somewhere at random?
Is there some auto destruct feature? Blowing it up would be a terrible idea but deploying a solar sail to slow it down and make it visible on sensors.... better then waking up one day to find a whole lot of holes in your house on earth or listen to another news story of a ship randomly perforated by battle space junk .... nothing starts a war faster than stray bullets capable of passing through an atmosphere and delivering a explosion the size of a small nuclear explosion anywhere at random ....
newsflash.…….. space is very very big