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Mirrors? How Do They Work? The Science of The Expanse, Episode 6
We explore how real the science in the science fiction is.
The Expanse has been painstakingly crafted to be as scientifically accurate as possible, so we'd be doing the whole universe a disservice if we didn't call out all of the minutiae that make the show the most realistic look at the future we've ever seen. We sat down with Daniel Abraham, Mark Fergus, and Hawk Ostby, the co-creators and producers (Daniel is also 1/2 of the team that wrote the book series the show is based on) to get the lowdown on the insane level of detail and intricacy they put into the science we see in the show. But how real is it? Nerds, read on.
Daniel Abraham: It works really well.
Mark Fergus: Works at the speed of convenience.
Daniel Abraham: Because once you're that far out, the sun is not what it is here. The nice thing about Ganymede is that it has a magnetoshere, so you can grow things on the surface there. You just have to get light to it, and a mirror is a cheap way to do that. That way that you don’t have to rely on a local energy supply, you can use the ultimate energy supply, the sun. So the orbital mirrors are there to concentrate sunlight support the farms.
Hawk Ostby: And the falling thing is a problem because they’re big and when they come down they wreck shit. [LAUGHS]
