10 Things You Didn't Know About The Expanse

7. Plant Life

The Expanse
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The plants that can be seen growing all along The Rocinante and other ships are a practically minded solution to the classic science fiction problem of life support.

This hydroponics approach, the concept of which is based on recent and ongoing research into plants in low gravity environments, is another example of how the series takes expected tropes of the genre and re-imagines them with realism in mind.

Where a show like Star Trek would have an artificial system of air recycling, The Expanse utilises the natural effects of photosynthesis to produce oxygen for its vessels. Men like Praxideke Meng fill the role of life support technician; as botanists their work can be the difference between life and death on a ship like The Rocinante.

Replacing and maintaining plants is also a whole lot easier than getting new parts for a complex artificial life support system, and finding the fertiliser for it isn't too hard either.

Just ask Matt Damon when he gets back from Mars.

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My passion for all things Sci Fi goes back to my earliest days, when old VHS copies of Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet gripped my tiny mind with their big, noisy vehicles and terrifying puppets. I'd like to say my taste got more refined over the years, but between the Warhammer, Space Dandy and niche Star Wars EU books, perhaps it just got broader. I've enjoyed games of all calibre since I figured out that dice weren't just for eating, and have written prose ever since I was left unsupervised with some crayons next to a white wall. I got away with it by calling it "schoolwork" for as long as I could, and university helped me keep the charade going a while longer. Since my work began to get published, it's made all those long hours repainting the walls seem worth it.