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S03.E01: Polaris


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This show. Damn. It manages to be great, terrible, and then just silly. All in one episode. I'll never be a fan of the human drama. Give me the space stuff all the way. And that was as good as ever! I mean, it takes time to build up to the cool end of season stuff, but the first steps were established here. God, I wish I could move to the world of FAM.

I hope they don't fall into last season's mistake. That being, not having anyone in space for the first half of the season! Sending Aleida to the moon is a move in the right direction. Speaking of whom, Octavio is back! There's a twist I didn't see coming. I wonder what favours were done or arms twisted to make that happen. Surely that's going to pay off down the line somewhere.

Ellen is a Republican candidate. Seriously? I don't want to wade into politics here, but aren't the Dems a little more liberal? Maybe they'd be more comfortable with her being gay. Though who knows how the parties have changed in the FAM universe. But the way it currently looks, she'll be stuck as far back in the closet as she can manage. OTOH, maybe she'll be forced out, and onto a different path.

All in all, it was pretty good. Looking forward to next week.

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Great opening episode. I am jealous of this timeline, especially the part about how Global Warming isn't too much of an issue. But are all the cars still useing gas, or all they all electric?

Love all the ittle details, such as how there are flat-screened computers in the early 90's. And the increasing gravity causing the figures on the wedding cake to sink.

The newsreal at the start was thrilling, Gary Hart as POTUS? Interesting. Until now the FAM verse and our timline had the same Presidents.

Edited by marinw
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For a minute I was worried the show was going to do some kind of "reset" by having everyone on board the space hotel die and introducing new characters in the next episode. 

Could someone please remind me, was Margo passing information to the Russians set up last season? That would have made sense in the 80s during the Cold War, but not so much in the post-Soviet 90s, I don't think. Either way, I really hate the trope of "intelligent but lonely middle-aged woman is taken in by a suave con man/spy."

Aleida seems like much less of an asshole now, which is great for the people who have to work with her.

Edited by chocolatine
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10 minutes ago, chocolatine said:

For a minute I was worried the show was going to do some kind of "reset" by having everyone on board the space hotel die and introducing new characters in the next episode. 

Could someone please remind me, was Margo passing informations to the Russians set up last season? That would have made sense in the 80s during the Cold War, but not so much in the post-Soviet 90s, I don't think. Either way, I really hate the trope of "intelligent but lonely middle-aged woman is taken in by a suave con man/spy."

Aleida seems like much less of an asshole now, which is great for the people who have to work with her.

Yes, that would have been an interesting plot twist!

Sort of. She shared some information with Sergei at a couple of points. The flawed O-ring on Challenger, and something else. We saw that Sergei had someone leaning on him right at the end.

Yeah, and that haircut makes her look older. That was one of my problems with her in S2, she just looked too... young. Her and Kelly both. This is a show about adults doing adult things. Then I have to watch these high school kids getting mixed up in it all.

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2 hours ago, marinw said:

I am jealous of this timeline, especially the part about how Global Warming isn't too much of an issue.

That I had a bit of a hard time believing. Even if the space race technology had made commercial fusion viable by the late 80s (I assume through rapid development of high temperature super conductors and increased funding), I have a hard time believing that it would have been cheaper than coal power plants. At least if you don't factor in the environmental costs and those are still to this day barely factored in.

If I understood correctly they also cited specifically fusion as the reason for climate change not being a problem. Had they cited extremely advanced solar panels that NASA developed for their spacecrafts, I would have had an easier time believing it.

22 minutes ago, chocolatine said:

For a minute I was worried the show was going to do some kind of "reset" by having everyone on board the space hotel die and introducing new characters in the next episode. 

I actually was kinda hoping for it. I thought it would have been a gutsy move. It's not like it would have been all old characters, just enough to thin out the cast a bit and get rid of characters that we've seen a lot of (some would say too much). But oh well, they went with the happy TV ending.

24 minutes ago, chocolatine said:

Could someone please remind me, was Margo passing information to the Russians set up last season? That would have made sense in the 80s during the Cold War, but not so much in the post-Soviet 90s, I don't think. Either way, I really hate the trope of "intelligent but lonely middle-aged woman is taken in by a suave con man/spy."

Yes she and her soviet friend were trading information. It was set off by margo noticing that the soviets were about to blow themselves up and she couldn't have those lives on her conscience by keeping quiet.

But to be clear, there is no post soviet era on this show. As of 1992 the soviet union is still very much intact and about to launch a mission to Mars.

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4 minutes ago, PurpleTentacle said:

I actually was kinda hoping for it. I thought it would have been a gutsy move. It's not like it would have been all old characters, just enough to thin out the cast a bit and get rid of characters that we've seen a lot of (some would say too much). But oh well, they went with the happy TV ending.

I would have been OK if the show had killed off Ed and Karen, but not Danielle, so I'm glad that didn't happen.

5 minutes ago, PurpleTentacle said:

Yes she and her soviet friend were trading information. It was set off by margo noticing that the soviets were about to blow themselves up and she couldn't have those lives on her conscience by keeping quiet.

I vaguely remember that, but I thought it was above-board, as part of the joint Apollo-Soyuz mission. What she did in this episode looked like espionage.

8 minutes ago, PurpleTentacle said:

But to be clear, there is no post soviet era on this show. As of 1992 the soviet union is still very much intact and about to launch a mission to Mars.

I should probably rewatch the opening montage to catch all the context it introduced. It's hard to wrap my mind around there being no post-Soviet era since I lived through it first-hand as a child.

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9 minutes ago, chocolatine said:

I vaguely remember that, but I thought it was above-board, as part of the joint Apollo-Soyuz mission. What she did in this episode looked like espionage.

Nah, very much illegal. But last season was a while ago. I've probably forgotten 90%. just not that part. :D

9 minutes ago, chocolatine said:

I should probably rewatch the opening montage to catch all the context it introduced. It's hard to wrap my mind around there being no post-Soviet era since I lived through it first-hand as a child.

It was maybe a bit subtle, but they had a news report for November 7th 1990 about the celebration of the anniversary of the october revolution in east Berlin. When in our world german reunification was on October 3rd 1990.

Also they referred to "the soviets" throughout the episode not to "the russians".

I was born in 1985 in west germany. So I can relate to this being very weird.

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There’s also extra features on the FAM website about major developments in the FAM timeline against the real timeline we were in. What was fusion power, is cold fusion using an isotope that in the FAM world is more plentiful on the Moon.

Vehicles were in transition from gas to electric power. 
 

And production did give Danny a real set up in this episode to be Ed’s successor as the go to. He apparently graduated from Annapolisand entered the astronaut program. So in coming to the rescue, he knew what he was doing.

Edited by theschnauzers
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18 minutes ago, PurpleTentacle said:

I was born in 1985 in west germany. So I can relate to this being very weird.

I was born in 1980 in the Soviet Union, then in 1991 moved with my family to Germany. So I have very vivid memories of everything that happened.

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48 minutes ago, PurpleTentacle said:

Yes she and her soviet friend were trading information. It was set off by margo noticing that the soviets were about to blow themselves up and she couldn't have those lives on her conscience by keeping quiet.

Yep, and season 2 ended with Sergei reaching out to Margo again, and then the reveal that his outreach is now under KGB supervision.

Speaking of KGB supervision, I was amused by the opening headline "Trump in Red Square." Though as long as the real Trump is alive and famously litigious, I suspect they'll have to tread carefully re: his place in the alternate history to come. We probably won't get the alternate path I've always thought would be especially interesting: Trump as a bullying, possibly compromised Democratic POTUS.

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9 hours ago, theschnauzers said:

There’s also extra features on the Prime Video website about major developments in the FAM timeline against the real timeline we were in. What was fusion power, is cold fusion using an isotope that in the FAM world is more plentiful on the Moon.

Interesting, seeing how FAM is an Apple show

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Eighties Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid is perfect casting for Tracy and Gordo.

I laughed when I saw that Diego Maradona did not get away with "The Hand of God", one of the most infamous non-calls in sports history, in this AU. 

The opening montage mentioned real life spy Johnathon Pollard. I hope that is not foreshadowing Margo's fate. How long has she been living in her office? That's really sad.

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4 hours ago, marinw said:

Interesting, seeing how FAM is an Apple show

I assume it's not availible where Apple TV+ is availible. It certainly isn't on german Prime.

2 hours ago, xaxat said:

The opening montage mentioned real life spy Johnathon Pollard. I hope that is not foreshadowing Margo's fate. How long has she been living in her office? That's really sad.

She has been basically living at NASA since episode 1 of season 1. I guess now that she's director she can get away with it officially and doesn't have to hide it anymore. I mean hey, no commute. She might still have an apartment for the weekends or when she has friends over. For the head of NASA that shouldn't break the bank.

Edited by PurpleTentacle
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And the increasing gravity causing the figures on the wedding cake to sink.

I got the kick out of Ed’s(?) new wife trying to throw something at him and the object falling short due to the increasing gravity.

All of that though, some Irwin Allen level disaster movie dominoes fall one after the other.

Everyone in authority aware that something REALLY BAD is potentially about to happen (In SPACE!), but don’t alert the paying customers that their lives are in danger. Oh yes, surely things will work out for the best, the astronauts sent to do the repairs will certainly get ‘er done. Get people in position to possibly GTFO? Nah, party on!

I’m with “PurpleTentacle”. If the writers/producers were ganna do something so hack, they could have taken the chance to clear out some older characters…

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Am I the only one (besides Karen) a bit bewildered by Danny’s choice of first dance song? Was this supposed to mean he’s still in love with Karen, or was it supposed to be a “fuck you” to her?

Sorry to see Sam go. (Were he and Karen married or just business partners?) I’d have preferred to see the snotty little brother buy it, but since he didn’t I suppose he’ll cause trouble throughout the season. Speaking of whom… after Danielle’s stepson was smoking weed with him, how did Danielle and her husband not smell it on him? (Or maybe they were too relieved he was okay to care about that.)

Why did the first two astronauts who went out to do the repair not tether themselves as Danny did?! That would be absolutely imperative to me if I was doing an EVA and I’m not even an astronaut, FFS.

ETA: Are we meant to infer that Ed’s wife is an alcoholic, that Ed is controlling with her, or both?

I noted that with Margo and Sergei it wasn’t just her passing him info since she thanked him for info he’d given her to fix something.

Aleida’s dad freaked me out a little but I guess it’s just because of the nasty character (“T-Lock”) he played in Big Sky. 

Glad to see Aleida and the guy at Mission Control are still buddies.

Edited by CarpeFelis
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1 hour ago, CarpeFelis said:

Speaking of whom… after Danielle’s stepson was smoking weed with him, how did Danielle and her husband not smell it on him?

Danielle definitely smelled it. She had a WTF? look on her face after they hugged.

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22 hours ago, CarpeFelis said:

Am I the only one (besides Karen) a bit bewildered by Danny’s choice of first dance song? Was this supposed to mean he’s still in love with Karen, or was it supposed to be a “fuck you” to her?

My thought was option C...he's just basic.

I felt the end of S2 was peak prestige tv and this episode felt like a Love Boat special in comparison.

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If alternate reality Gary Hart won two POTUS terms it's doubtful to me there would've been a Bill Clinton. Hart must've loved watching this.

Not a fan of "aged" Joel Kinneman. The actress playing his wife was a funny surprise. She has a recurring role on The Bold and the Beautiful where she plays a relatively staid doctor and the opposite of a party animal.

So is Molly fully blind now? She's got a seeing eye dog now who appears to be of the same gruff temperament as she.

This show is still on point with the women's wardrobes. I recognized Margo's vintage Etienne Aigner shoulder bag right away.

Someone should've snatched the mic away from Danny's brother Jimmy. What a pointlessly miserable wedding toast.

That first dance song! OMG, Danny! A bit of a gut punch for Karen, lol. And the poor bride likely had no clue of the song's significance to her new husband.

Wow, what a cascade of failure. Were there no redundancies or failsafes built in at all? Over on reddit they've been calling Polaris the space Motel 6.

So now Danny will be the new hero and Karen will owe him big time. Gee, wonder how he might want to collect on the debt? 😏

Now this is how you open a third season. Ditto comments upthread, I thought sure they were getting ready to wipe out a chunk of the cast like FAM's version of the Red Wedding.

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On 6/12/2022 at 6:07 PM, Joimiaroxeu said:

If alternate reality Gary Hart won two POTUS terms it's doubtful to me there would've been a Bill Clinton. Hart must've loved watching this.

Not a fan of "aged" Joel Kinneman. The actress playing his wife was a funny surprise. She has a recurring role on The Bold and the Beautiful where she plays a relatively staid doctor and the opposite of a party animal.

So is Molly fully blind now? She's got a seeing eye dog now who appears to be of the same gruff temperament as she.

This show is still on point with the women's wardrobes. I recognized Margo's vintage Etienne Aigner shoulder bag right away.

Someone should've snatched the mic away from Danny's brother Jimmy. What a pointlessly miserable wedding toast.

That first dance song! OMG, Danny! A bit of a gut punch for Karen, lol. And the poor bride likely had no clue of the song's significance to her new husband.

Wow, what a cascade of failure. Were there no redundancies or failsafes built in at all? Over on reddit they've been calling Polaris the space Motel 6.

So now Danny will be the new hero and Karen will owe him big time. Gee, wonder how he might want to collect on the debt? 😏

Now this is how you open a third season. Ditto comments upthread, I thought sure they were getting ready to wipe out a chunk of the cast like FAM's version of the Red Wedding.

In the FAM timeline, Hart serves two terms ending in 1992, which is when Clinton is running in the RL timeline and the FAM timeline. Reagan serves beginning in 1976 to 1984 (Carter was a Senator from Georgia, per season two). So George HW Bush never reaches the presidency and isn’t there to react to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. Meanwhile, the earlier promotion of electric cars and the use of fusion power, cuts US dependence on petroleum.

It does seem that Polaris, as a private enterprise totally went for the cost savings to avoid redundant or backup systems. Not clear if their astronauts were trained as well as the NASA and the ESA astronauts, but it’s clear Danny followed his parents (and Ed) into the NASA program. Which should explain why Ed gave him the green light to go fix the valve before everything failed. Whether “Don’t Be Cruel” has a deeper meaning than being a call back to Karen and Danny in season 2, we’ll have to wait and see. 
 

I suspect we haven’t heard the last about North Korea and the harm their failed launches have had in earth orbit, including the Polaris.

Have no idea whether Margo has a CIA contact inher dealings with Sergi, as he has with the KGB. Wouldn’t surprise me if Putin is in there somewhere.

Edited by theschnauzers
Fixed typo.
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1 hour ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

If alternate reality Gary Hart won two POTUS terms it's doubtful to me there would've been a Bill Clinton. Hart must've loved watching this.

In the supplemental material, we learn that Clinton's main rival for the nomination was Hart's vice president, Al Gore, so it sort of makes sense that Clinton had an opening as the optimistic populist who's going to keep the good times rolling, in contrast to Gore's "sensible technocrat" vibe.

But I wonder if the hotel disaster is going to put the brakes on Clinton's fun-time message, leaving an opening for Ellen to reposition the Republicans as the party of responsible leadership, e.g., Who do you trust to keep our satellites from falling out of the sky, some goober from Arkansas or an actual astronaut?

Edited by Dev F
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In the FAM timeline, Hart serves two terms ending in 1992, which is when Clinton is running in the RL timeline and the FAM timeline. Reagan serves beginning in 1976 to 1988 (Carter was a Senator from Georgia, per season two). So George HWBush never reaches the presidency and isn’t there to react to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. Meanwhile, the earlier promotion of electric cars and the use of fusion power, cuts US dependence on petroleum.

Quote

In the supplemental material, we learn that Clinton's main rival for the nomination was Hart's vice president, Al Gore, so it sort of makes sense that Clinton had an opening as the optimistic populist who's going to keep the good times rolling, in contrast to Gore's "sensible technocrat" vibe.

I don't recall how JFK and RFK fared in this alternate reality but it seems to me both Hart and Clinton sort of positioned themselves as the heir to the Kennedy throne but without the baggage associated with the name. They both had that JFK swagger to some extent, IMO. But unless the alternate reality versions of Hart or Clinton painted themselves differently, it seemed to me Hart would've eliminated the basis for Clinton's run after two terms in office. Gore would've made more sense to me.

Unless Ellen gets publicly outed I suspect she's going to win the election.

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On 6/10/2022 at 9:40 PM, chocolatine said:

I vaguely remember that, but I thought it was above-board, as part of the joint Apollo-Soyuz mission. What she did in this episode looked like espionage.

No, it is 100% espionage. You don't turn over government secrets to a foreign government. If she is found out she will go to prison. Whatever her reasons. Unless this is a form of counterespionage where she is feeding him false information to sabotage their own efforts and the US is behind it.

Good episode, lots of excitement. I really like this cast but I will miss the Stevens.

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2 hours ago, theschnauzers said:

Not clear if their astronauts were trained as well as the NASA and the ESA astronauts

It was mentioned in the episode that the hotel's astronauts were poached from NASA.

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1 hour ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

I don't recall how JFK and RFK fared in this alternate reality but it seems to me both Hart and Clinton sort of positioned themselves as the heir to the Kennedy throne but without the baggage associated with the name. They both had that JFK swagger to some extent, IMO. But unless the alternate reality versions of Hart or Clinton painted themselves differently, it seemed to me Hart would've eliminated the basis for Clinton's run after two terms in office. Gore would've made more sense to me.

Unless Ellen gets publicly outed I suspect she's going to win the election.

I went back and checked. As in the RL timeline, Nixon is elected president in 1968, but the failure of the US to land on the Moon catapults Ted Kennedy (avoiding Chappaquiddick from happening) into position to defeat Nixon in 1972 (Thus, no Watergate scandal, either.) in 1976, Ronald Reagan defeats Ted Kennedy in his bid for re-election. The FAM timeline doesn’t mention Robert Kennedy at all.

Edited by theschnauzers
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Yeah, I remembered Ted Kennedy missing Chappaquiddick and becoming President.  Interesting about Hart.  Also interesting, the assassination of Margaret Thatcher.  I need to go back and rewatch the beginning of the episode to see what else I missed the first time since it goes so fast.

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On 6/11/2022 at 10:07 PM, CarpeFelis said:

Why did the first two astronauts who went out to do the repair not tether themselves as Danny did?! That would be absolutely imperative to me if I was doing an EVA and I’m not even an astronaut, FFS.

They did. Their teathers snapped when they were hit by the cable.

On 6/13/2022 at 1:07 AM, Joimiaroxeu said:

So is Molly fully blind now? She's got a seeing eye dog now who appears to be of the same gruff temperament as she.

She was going blind last season and they said there was nothing they could do to stop it. So, yes.

The dog rubbed me the wrong way so hard! Seeing eye dogs are specifically chosen for their even temperament. Not too friendly, but also not unfriendly. A ton of dogs don't get chosen because they don't fit the bill and a good chunk even flunk out after a considerable amount of training, which costs a ton of money. It's actually the reaosn why cloning support animals has become a big thing. With clones of good support animals you have a much better success rate and it's cheaper than an animal flunking out after years of training.

Also leaving the harness on the dog while she's just sitting at her desk? That's a dick move, Molly!

On 6/13/2022 at 2:39 AM, theschnauzers said:

Reagan serves beginning in 1976 to 1988

Three terms? Don't they have a term limit? Why not? That was established before our timeline and the FAM timeline split. Did I miss something?

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7 minutes ago, PurpleTentacle said:

Three terms? Don't they have a term limit? Why not? That was established before our timeline and the FAM timeline split. Did I miss something?

Sorry, typo. Tapping posts on an iPad that chooses to change what you tap is very frustrating. Fixed.

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She was going blind last season and they said there was nothing they could do to stop it. So, yes.

Wasn't Molly also dying? After the flash forward I was surprised to see she was even still alive, much less fully blind.

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2 minutes ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

Wasn't Molly also dying? After the flash forward I was surprised to see she was even still alive, much less fully blind.

Don't think so. She has a much higher risk of cancer, but I guess she beat the odds so far.

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So, they have a big rocket motor that is making the wheel speed up. There is a much smaller, braking rocket motor firing in the opposite direction but it isn't strong enough to curb the big one. As the ring rotation accelerates, the apparent gravity at the rim increases. There is a design limit of 4G, after which structural failure becomes a risk.

Is that 4G acceleration of the ring? Or apparent "acceleration due to gravity" at the rim of the ring?

Because shutting off that big motor will stop the ring spinning any faster. Newton's first law states that every object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless compelled to change its state by the action of an external force. And I believe this applies to the rotating ring. It would continue at the speed it was at when the big motor was killed. So, the G force at the rim (artificial gravity) won't immediately begin to fall because the speed of rotation won't fall until acted upon by " the action of an external force."

The little braking motor will eventually slow the ring back down again, but it will take much longer than the big motor did to spin it up! If the little motor is only 10% the power of the bigger one, then it will take 10 times as long to slow the ring back down, as the big motor spent speeding it up!

Yet we saw dramatic, near-instantaneous reduction on the G-meter. 

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On thing that took me out of it for a moment was when Jonny said that his mother had taught him the trick to smoke and blow the smoke directly into the air recycling system. She invented the technique when she was on the moon, not long before her death and I highly doubt that she would have talked about it during a visio with her family...

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On 6/12/2022 at 11:47 PM, theschnauzers said:

I went back and checked. As in the RL timeline, Nixon is elected president in 1968, but the failure of the US to land on the Moon catapults Ted Kennedy (avoiding Chappaquiddick from happening) into position to defeat Nixon in 1972 (Thus, no Watergate scandal, either.) in 1976, Ronald Reagan defeats Ted Kennedy in his bid for re-election. The FAM timeline doesn’t mention Robert Kennedy at all.

It seems that some sort of Watergate still happened. In the 70s to 80s time jump montage, we hear a phone call from Reagan (as president post 1976) pardoning Nixon. Ted Kennedy wouldn't have done it while he was president, and of course without a second Nixon term, there's no VP Agnew resignation nor Ford as either VP or president to pardon Nixon.

It seems safe to assume that everything up to the Soviets first landing on the moon is identical to our universe, so JFK and RFK died in exactly the same way as we know.

Meanwhile, Maradona's handball goal didn't stand, and England won that quarter final of the 1986 World Cup (on penalties? or did Gary Lineker score that chance near the end to win 2-1?). I'd like to think that England went on to beat Belgium in the semi finals, but I imagine they lost to West Germany in the final.

Edited by Xarquol
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On 8/31/2022 at 1:50 PM, Xarquol said:

It seems that some sort of Watergate still happened. In the 70s to 80s time jump montage, we hear a phone call from Reagan (as president post 1976) pardoning Nixon. Ted Kennedy wouldn't have done it while he was president, and of course without a second Nixon term, there's no VP Agnew resignation nor Ford as either VP or president to pardon Nixon.

I

IIRC, It was actually Ted Kennedy who pardoned (or offered to pardon) Nixon, so something did happen. And ol' Dick responded with some "expletives deleted" and made a crack about Mary Jo 😂

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The construction of rotating space hotel as envisioned here would be an enormous undertaking that would require resources far beyond those of even the very richest private investors. Nevertheless, if the show can warp the time line to rewrite history such that fusion power is real in this timeline, perhaps building something like this is no more fanciful than that.

But they did get certain things right. As also portrayed in the movie Gravity, space junk is a very serious real and growing problem. A rotating structure like this would break apart if rotating too fast. I don't know if the 4G threshold mentioned here would be a reasonably likely failure point. That would depend on its size and rotational speed. The larger the structure, the slower the rotation would need to be to simulate gravity (of 1G or anything else). People wouldn't feel anything unusual at 1.05 G, but probably would at 1.4 G, though here most of the guests still didn't seem to realize something was wrong (some seemed drunk). Also, pouring a liquid in a rotating structure like this would not pour straight down because of the coreolis effect. The Expanse got that one right, as shown here, but this show, not so much:

 

Consider throwing a ball out from a spinning merrygoround. From the perspective of a stationary observer not on the merrygoround, the ball travels in straight line. But from the perspective of the thrower on the merrygoround, the ball's path curves like the water in this Expanse clip. See also:

 

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