Bad science!

[gridlore]

Got the first disk of Season 1 for Battlestar Galactica today. And the second episode hangs its entire plot on Bad Astronomy.

The episode is entitled Water. The main plot concerns the hunt for a water source after planted bombs rupture half the Galactica's water tanks. Along with this we get more paranoia and Valerii acting more Cylon-like with each passing moment.

The problem? Space is filled with water! Our solar system has mountains of the stuff, thousands if not millions of them, wandering around out past the main belt. Looking into deep space we see that hydrogen and oxygen are common, so it makes sense that in any system you'll find at least a few Kuiper Belt Objects large enough to supply the entire fleet for years.

Grumble.

Of course, if i was a Cyclon agent looking to cripple the fleet and set humanity up for the final blow, I'd set bombs on the Galactica's FTL drive.

Comments

[fangorn.livejournal.com]

Devil's Advocate to the fore!

Your argument implies that water _in quantity_ is found in, or near, solar systems. Is the Galactica trying to avoid systems? Might a Cylon agent hope to steer the fleet towards a particular system, or away from its current course?

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

They specified they were searching nearby solar systems.

[pauldrye.livejournal.com]

I've retconned it in my mind that they needed water from somewhere where the atmosphere was vaguely breathable and the temperature vaguely livable. It's a lot harder to find water under those circumstances, and they needed them because they were using convicts for labour and didn't have space suits for them.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Except the place they found was close to Europa in terms of temps.

[arib.livejournal.com]

Perhaps the FTL engines are under higher security. Galactica has a few Marines attached, and they're rather no-nonsense.

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

Some of what I've read about the cylons suggests that they want humanity to tear itself apart, as a proof of their theorem we don't deserve to live.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Ah, the Ice Pirates fallacy.

Then again, how well is a modern aircraft carrier equipped for cracking water? Can it supply the rest of its battle group, and/or a flotilla of civilian boats? How about if it wasn't literally floating in the stuff, and had to bring it aboard in small craft?

[johno.livejournal.com]

Modern aircraft carriers sit in the stuff and can't use it. No large scale desalination plants on board. Could galatica take dirty ice and convert it to drinking water?

[10binary-cats.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, but in a pinch the could build a desal plant out of on board supplies in it's well equipped machine shop.

With sufficient power and hard vacuum you can probably come up with a few ways of converting dirty ice to drinking water.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

"In a pinch" is definitely where they are. :)

The point I'm trying to make is that Galactica represents a single warship trying to survive without any supply and logistics tail. It can't rely on fleet tenders and bases anymore. It has to do EVERYTHING with what's on board. Same goes for the rest of the fleet.

Is there water out there? Yes!
Can you do anything with it? ... let me check stores and get back to you. By the way, it would really help if it was liquid and not too contaminated, or else we'll have to jury-rig something out of our constantly dwindling collection of parts.

[kengr]

Given the sort of power they are throwing around, purifying even "dirty ice" is easy.

[shadowcat48li.livejournal.com]

do we know what the galactica actually uses for fuel? if its some kind of hydrogen, you might have some kind of cracking plant already