S04.E06 Leningrad

[paulvdb]

Quote

Unlikely partnerships are formed at a high-stakes international conference.

Premiere date: December 15, 2023

[PurpleTentacle]

I don't get how they ever thought capturing and mining an asteroid in Mars orbit would be a good idea? How have they never looked for one that could be captured from earth? And how did it take them half this episode to come to the conclusion, that mining it in earth orbit would be the only logical solution? I don't get this show. Supposedly these people are super smart, but then they make the dumbest decisions and mistakes.

This episode was quite emotional. Alida was justifiably angry, but at some point she acted almost like the bombing was Margo's fault. What would she have done if she had been there? Likely gotten blown up. It's not like that would have saved anybody.

I still doubt Margo would have spent one day in prison. Her espionage would have been swept under the rug faster than you can say operation paperclip, in order to not embarrass the US. If she was valuable enough she might have even been allowed to stay on, with constant supervision. If not she would have been made to quietly resign.

Are these kinds of contracts, where the employer can just change all the terms, legal in the US? Because they sure as hell wouldn't be in any european country.

 

Edited December 15, 2023 by PurpleTentacle

[marinw]

“The Sand Pebbles”. Haven’t read it, but I’m sure it has significance.

I must admit that drunk, semi-unemployed Ed is a riot. He starts a labour movement because he’s bored.

Miles is slightly smarter than he looks although I’m sure his power play will go sideways.

The scene between Margo and Alida was great.

I want more space action!!!

Edited December 16, 2023 by marinw

[marinw]

 I'm sure assigning Alida a less than luxurious hotel was a power play.

So Dani is religious. I suppose that was implied in the flashback to when she gave a bible to Danny. I'm assuming it was her own Bible.

Edited December 16, 2023 by marinw

[Dev F]

On 12/15/2023 at 2:08 AM, PurpleTentacle said:

I don't get how they ever thought capturing and mining an asteroid in Mars orbit would be a good idea? How have they never looked for one that could be captured from earth?

Asteroids never get that close to Earth, do they? The whole reason why they're using Mars as a platform for their asteroid work is because of its proximity to the asteroid belt, right?

This was by far my favorite episode of the season, hitting that sweet spot where the alt reality politics resonates with the personal stories instead of fighting them for prominence.

[marinw]

2 hours ago, Dev F said:

Asteroids never get that close to Earth, do they?

If one did, mining said asteroid will not be top of mind, colliding with Earth would be. The plan to bring Goldilocks to Earth is dangerous because if the thing goes off course Earth could be facing a possible extinction event.

Edited December 16, 2023 by marinw

[PurpleTentacle]

20 minutes ago, Dev F said:

Asteroids never get that close to Earth, do they? The whole reason why they're using Mars as a platform for their asteroid work is because of its proximity to the asteroid belt, right?

Nah, plenty get close enough to earth. Mars has cleaned up its orbit just like earth. Otherwise it wouldn't be considered a planet. That Mars is closer to the asteroid belt really doesn't matter.

You could mine asteroids from the belt, with a base on Mars, but that is not what they are doing here.

11 minutes ago, marinw said:

If one dies, mining said asteroid will not be top of mind, colliding with Earth is. The plan to bring Goldilocks to Earth is dangerous because if the thing goes off course Earth could be facing a possible estimation event.

Oh there are constantly asteroids crossing earths orbit. Good thing is, asteroids don't just go off course. But that doesn't mean that there couldn't be one on a colission course with us at any time. One can only hope that if that happens we get our shit together and intercept it fast enough.

Goldilocks is 1.1km in diameter. If that falls on a city or an inauspicious place in the ocean that sucks. That's the city gone, or maybe multiple by Tsunami, and even further there will be a ton of damage and death due to the air blast. But it isn't a planet killer. If it falls on land it might lower the temperature by about 1°C for a few years. So less than we've already raised it with our CO2 emissions.

For comparison, the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs was about 10km in diameter, struck earth at the deadliest angle and hit sulfur rich rock. Basically it was the worst case scenario. Good for us though. We likely wouldn't be here without it.

But 1.1km is pretty big. I'm not sure how realistic it would be to capture such a chonker in the first place. I suspect that it's pretty much impossible, even with FAM-technology, but I don't know for sure, so I won't put that on my list of gripes.

[Haleth]

They’d better check the asteroid for blue goo before they haul it near Earth. 😄

[whiporee]

I don't think they are talking about putting it in Earth orbit. I think they are talking about lunar orbit, which would be a lot smarter because there's no real consequence of it hitting the moon, certainly not when compared to what would happen if it hit Earth. Not a planet killer, but certainly a planet changer. 

I was glad to see they're talking about landing on the asteroid to move it, because I did that in a book I wrote. Easier to push than to pull. 

[marinw]

1 hour ago, whiporee said:

I don't think they are talking about putting it in Earth orbit. I think they are talking about lunar orbit, which would be a lot smarter because there's no real consequence of it hitting the moon, certainly not when compared to what would happen if it hit Earth.

Hitting the Moon could alter it's orbit, which would have big consequences for Earth in terms of tides and other things. Also, the Moon in the 2003 FAMverse is quite populated.

Edited December 17, 2023 by marinw

[PurpleTentacle]

7 hours ago, whiporee said:

Not a planet killer, but certainly a planet changer. 

Locally? Yes. Globally? No.

6 hours ago, marinw said:

Hitting the Moon could alter it's orbit, which would have big consequences for Earth in terms of tides and other things.

Not with a 1,1km diameter asteroid. The moon is real damn big (much bigger than a small rocky planet would usually have, that thing is gas-giant-moon-sized).

6 hours ago, marinw said:

Also, the Moon in the 2003 FAMverse is quite populated.

Compared to earth there is basically nobody there. Also the results would be a lot less bad on the moon.  No air blast and no fire ball, because there is no air. So the problems are only the direct impact crater and the debris.

[marinw]

I still want to know what is going on with Lee. If he was officially the First Person on Mars he should be celebrated as a great hero in NK. It seems like he doesn't even want to be on Mars, he would rather be back on Earth with his wife whom he is desperate to reunite with. 

[vibeology]

I hate Ed but those new bonuses are shit and it's nice that after years, he's finally remembered he's the boss of all the underground people who get treated like shit. So Ed the labour organizer can live a little longer in my eyes. Can't wait until the Helios executive team shows up. Should be fun.

Margot and Aleida's reunion was emotional. I was wondering if Aleida was even a bit suspicious when Svetlana said "work the problem." I still think Margot played the whole thing wrong but Svetlana was right that Margot cared about holding on to power. I don't think Margot would have ended up in jail. But she would have been forced out of NASA and that was the real fear. Now, she has power from the other side. 

[Joimiaroxeu]

The classic song That's Life played at the beginning didn't quite sound like Frank Sinatra to me. Did he do more than one version or was it modified for the alternate timeline?

Aleida speaking at the conference seemed to have acquired some of Dev's mannerisms. Wonder if that was deliberate, to borrow the appearance of his authority?

Ed is losing his mental faculties. Or is he? That was something the way he worked Ilya. How did he figure out Ilya's operation?

Aleida's reaction to seeing not dead Margo was great. At least until the depth of Margo's betrayal came flooding back to Aleida's memory. Amazing performances by both actresses.

There's nothing like the meeting of two highly intelligent minds chosing to put a scientific goal ahead of politics.

Good job, Miles. I'm surprised it took you this long to move Ilya out of the way. (Though over on reddit, they see Miles as settling himself up as the Godfather of Mars with the NKs as his muscle. I dunno.)

Ed the aged boy scout now leading a labor strike. Bet nobody saw that coming, least of all Dani.

[Black Knight]

I suspect Ed is a goner by season's end, so instead of being infuriated, I was rather amused by his actions in this episode. He didn't want Svetlana to face any consequences for almost killing one of that group, he didn't care about the fact none of them had gotten to communicate with their families in weeks because he didn't make fixing the bandwidth a priority, and he was not only completely dismissive of their financial needs, he looked down on them for it. But sure, because he's mad that Dani won't let him fly anymore with the hand tremor and canned him as XO, he's going to pretend to suddenly care about the below decks people so he can cause trouble for Dani. LOL If he were still XO, he would've signed that pay rates and bonus sheet without a second thought and dismissed the below decks people's anger after. He did the right thing here, but for the wrong reason.

Dani I suspect will be genuinely horrified by what Helios was planning on doing, and Kelly and Dev, who controls Helios, are about to arrive, so I expect all of this can be repaired pretty quickly.

I expect Kelly's arrival with his grandson will kinda get Ed back on track somewhat, in time for what I expect will be a Molly Cobb sort of exit.

I loved every bit of Margo and Aleida in this episode. Margo's reaction to first seeing Aleida on camera, and then wanting to keep watching her. The complex scene of Aleida, Eli and Irina with Margo's voice in her ear, with Aleida I think subconsciously being triggered a bit by Margo-isms. And then of course Aleida seeing Margo alive, and for all of her justifiable anger and grief that she fully vented later, none of that alters that her first reaction was to throw her arms around Margo and sob. And I think getting to talk about the trauma of that day with Margo, specifically, is what she had really needed all those years after the bombing.

Aleida obviously vehemently disagrees with Margo's decisions to hand over information to Russia and to defect, but I think still prefers that to Margo being dead. And ultimately, if Margo had not chosen to defect, that's probably what would have happened to her: She would have died in the bombing when her office wall got blown out. I believed Margo when she said she wished she had been at her post, but although I don't know that Aleida will ever voice it, I think she doesn't feel the same way even though she knows she probably "should." 

Just wonderful work by both actresses in this episode.

[ahpny]

On 12/17/2023 at 7:01 PM, PurpleTentacle said:

The moon is real damn big (much bigger than a small rocky planet would usually have, that thing is gas-giant-moon-sized).

The moon is not only objectively large for any moon, but by far the largest in size relative to the planet it orbits. That is, no moon in our solar system comes anywhere close to our moon as a percentage of mass of the orbited planet - here Earth.

The part of this episode that didn't quite ring true was the premise that no one else other than team Aleida & Margo can solve this problem. Really? If these two don't team up, no one else, or no other group, in the entire world (or maybe even  the world plus moon and Mars now) that can solve this problem? Also, is the Roscosmos head so thick that she's totally lost with her Margo earpiece? How did she get to her position knowing so little?