Re:The Physics of Space War: How Orbital Dynamics Constrain ...
by jusssi on Thursday October 22, 2020 @04:47AM
(#24856018)
The strategy representation could also be rationalized as the Mars actively positioning their forces near most efficient transfer routes between points of interest. There seems to be relatively few places in the Belt and outside where anyone would want to go to, and guarding empty space where you'd expect no one to pass wouldn't make much sense. So ships transiting from Earth to the Belt would be going through Mars' solar orbit doughnut-of-influence.
This of course ignores that with the Epstein drive magic, one could always trade travel time for going around ie. off-plane. There's plenty of, well, space for that. (Edit: according to the no-stealth-in-space link in a sibling post, one would be seen doing that, and likely get chased for it as being suspicious).
Re:The Physics of Space War: How Orbital Dynamics Constrain ...
by rob74 on Thursday October 22, 2020 @07:46AM
(#24857001)
Ah, the Epstein Drive, invented by Solomon Epstein, the Zefram Cochrane of The Expanse - seems like an unfortunate naming in retrospect, but I guess the novels were published a few years before Jeffrey Epstein became notorious...
The one thing that bugs me a bit is the way they conceptually represent the solar system in the show. If you follow the way the situation is represented you essentially have Earth on one side of the solar system, Mars in the middle and the asteroid field on the other side. That seems to be how the strategic situation is presented. To get from the asteroid field you essentially have to go past Mars, which is closer to the asteroids. If you think about the actual layout of the solar system this makes no sense, in reality Earth is about in the middle and any given asteroid is closer to the Earth at any given time than it is to half the rest of the belt.
Again, it's fine. There's no way to capture the real dynamics of the solar system in the story without hopelessly bogging everything down, and for the purposes of the show the simplified model works fine. I suppose you could argue that during the period of the show by chance most of the main asteroids and Mars happen to be lined up on roughly the same side of the solar system as Jupiter, and then it basically works. It's just a bit of a fudge.