The Expanse is a sci-fi book series, adapted
to TV. It’s got politics, mystery, space battles,
space Mormons, and a looming alien threat – and it’s mostly based in realistic science
and technology. The Expanse is set “Hundreds of years in
the future”, when “humans have colonized the solar system”. Earth is “overpopulated” and environmentally
stressed, and it’s governed by the United Nations. Mars is an independent power, with advanced
technology and military, working to terraform the red planet. While Earth and Mars are the big political
powers, the asteroid belt is a dangerous new “frontier”. Millions of people live on Ceres, Eros, and
other rocks, mining the belt for resources. A political network called the OPA fights
for the rights of the belt against Earth and Mars. Beyond the belt, Jupiter’s moons of Ganymede
and Europa grow food in greenhouses. There are resorts on Saturn’s moon Titan,
and labs on the moons of Uranus and Neptune – “the farthest outpost[s] of human civilization”. Earth, Mars and the belt each have distinct
cultures and histories. Earth is controlled by the United Nations
because some time ago, Earth had a terrible environmental “collapse”. The ice caps melted, and the sea level rose,
causing mass displacement and chaos. In the face of “extinction”, the nations
of Earth were forced to unite under one government. There are still some places resisting the
UN, but most of the planet’s under control. Of course, within that government there’re
factions and conflicts. One major character, UN politician Avasarala,
fights for peace amidst the politics. So Earth is powerful, “But it's an empire
in decline”. It’s way overpopulated, relying on recycling
machines to keep it from “drowning in its own filth”. About half the planet is unemployed, living
off welfare called “basic”. Basic provides food and shelter, but no money
– and not much freedom to make your own choices. So Earth feels stagnant, bureaucratic and
“bloated”, but it’s still the only place where humans can stand beneath an open sky,
and breathe free air. It’s the birthplace of humanity, and it’s
not giving up yet. Mars was settled by some of Earth’s best
scientists and engineers. They built cities underground and in domes,
developed the best spaceships and science, and soon they decided they didn’t want to
serve Earth any more. Mars wanted independence, which almost caused
war with Earth. But then, a Martian called Solomon Epstein
invented the Epstein drive, a rocket technology that made spaceships fly far faster and further
than before. Solomon’s test drive accelerated so fast
that it killed him – and a hundred n thirty years later, you can still see his ship shooting
into deep space – “The best, longest funeral in … history”. Mars recovered Epstein’s design, and shared
the drive with Earth in return for independence. So now Mars has its own government and military,
and stands as a rival superpower to Earth. But while Earth is bloated and slow, Mars
is driven and focussed on one goal – to terraform Mars, “to turn a lifeless rock
into a garden”. This shared purpose unites Martians from many
different backgrounds. The Mariner Valley was settled by East Indians,
Chinese and Texans – so you get Martians like Alex Kamal, who looks Indian, but speaks
in a Texan drawl. Mars brings together some of humanity’s
best and brightest with the shared goal of transforming the red planet. But Mars’ technology and military makes
their rivalry with Earth dangerous – war could bring disaster on both planets. People born in the asteroid belt are called
Belters. Since they grow up in low gravity, Belters
are tall and thin, with weak bones – so some can’t even survive the gravity of Earth. They’ve become a separate people, with their
own culture, adapted to space. They have their own language, and hand gestures
to communicate through spacesuits. In the show, they have special tattoos – old
spacesuits used to burn Belters’ necks, so they’d tattoo to cover the scars. Now, even unburned Belters get the tattoos
as marks of cultural identity. These are a people who ventured into the darkness
of space to explore, find fortune and freedom. But the Belt is still mostly controlled by
the inner planets – Earth and Mars. Inner governments and corporations own Belt
stations and mines, imposing heavy taxes, tariffs, and unfair laws. Some inners are racist against Belters, seeing
them as no longer human because of their differences. In response to this oppression, the Outer
Planets Alliance, or OPA, fights for Belter rights. But it’s a loose decentralised network that
includes criminal and terrorist elements. OPA leader Fred Johnson tries to unite and
legitimise the OPA – even though Fred was originally a military leader for Earth. At the same time, Fred runs an engineering
company that’s building a giant spaceship for Mormons who wanna colonise distant space. So The Expanse has all these different competing
factions, whose cultures and conflicts are shaped by the physics of space. Like, in space, there’s almost no gravity,
which is a problem – because your muscles waste away, your drinks spill everywhere,
and the VFX goes over budget. A lot of sci fi shows get around this by inventing
some ‘gravity plating’ that magically gives ships gravity. But The Expanse is more realistic, cause its
spaceships use acceleration, or thrust, to make gravity. It’s like how accelerating a car pushes
you back in your seat. By accelerating constantly, a spaceship can
use that pushback as gravity, pulling you down towards the thruster. The faster you accelerate, the stronger the
gravity – so flying at one g is Earth gravity, while two g is double Earth gravity, making
you weigh twice as much. When you’re in a hurry, or in combat, ships
might fly at five or six gs. The Expanse has a drug called the juice which
helps people survive this – but too much g force will kill you. An Epstein ship can accelerate constantly
for the first half of a trip, then flip around and thrust in the other direction, to decelerate
for the rest of the trip. That way, it slows to a stop at the destination,
keeping thrust gravity the whole time. Real-world rockets aren’t fuel-efficient
enough to do this. But with the Epstein drive, the physics of
thrust gravity makes sense. Sometimes, though, you want gravity without
having to accelerate somewhere. So another method is to rotate an object so
the centrifugal force pushes you outwards. This looks nauseating, but from your perspective
inside the object, you’re standing still – and you’ve got gravity. It’s like the Gravitron, that spinning carnival
ride that pushes you against the walls. Spin up a whole space station, and that force
is your gravity – it’s like in 2001: A Space Odyssey. But in The Expanse, they don’t just spin
up stations. They take planetoids like Ceres that are too
small to have their own gravity, and they artificially spin the whole rock to give it
centrifugal force. The spin gravity pushes outwards, so people
live on the inside of Ceres, underground. This spin gravity in Ceres and Eros is a third
as strong as Earth’s gravity – which causes the tall thin bodies of Belters – like main
character Detective Miller. So the people and cultures of The Expanse
are shaped by real-world physics – and by communication technology. You can’t send a message faster than the
speed of light, so it can take seconds or minutes to send messages to distant planets. You can’t talk in real time. This creates tension and strategy in conflicts,
but it also has emotional impacts. The comm delay separates people from those
they love, making space feel truly remote. Technology also changes families – main
character James Holden was born in Montana to a family of three mothers and five fathers,
who each contributed to Holden’s DNA. Sharing one child between eight gave tax breaks
to Holden’s family on overpopulated Earth. So The Expanse makes some stuff up, like the
Epstein drive. But it also uses real science and technology
to shape its people and worlds. The story of The Expanse begins with Holden,
who gets into danger on an ice hauler; Detective Miller, who searches for a lost girl on Ceres;
and Avasarala, who navigates UN political intrigue. They’re all drawn in to a mystery and conspiracy
that threatens everything. We’re working on a video about this story
– but in the meantime, check out the first book, Leviathan Wakes. You can get it on audiobook for free today
by signing up for a trial at audible.com/asx. Members get a free book each month, and if
you cancel, you keep the books. Audible has all the main series Expanse books. So next time you’re driving, put on Leviathan
Wakes, and accelerate – to feel the gs of artificial gravity. Sign up at audible.com/asx, or text asx to
500-500. Thank you to Expanse author Daniel Abraham
for help with this script. Thank you for watching, and thanks to the
Patrons, including Steven Cook, Or Avziz, Eagle23, comtrend, and DJ Arruda. Cheers.
Indeed we have, I truly hope this will bring more fans and curious watchers to start binge watching the show and join us while we wait for the upcoming season.
ASX is also planning to do a more in-depth, spoiler analysis video of book 1 and season 1 sometime next month.
I didn't know I wanted this, now I can't wait for the next episode. I wonder if the expanse lore at this point is complex enough to support extravagant fan theories like Asoiaf.
I'm almost finished with book 3 and can't wait what will happen once I get past the point where season 3 ended.
He's THAT guy!!
That’s great! He has a huge audience and this will only help
I love ASX but I just want to be sure that theres no spoilers in this video. Only have read the first two books and seen the show
I'm watching the show right now because of him.
one new fan
Fuck yeah