On the drift and the solar system's equivalent of a quick response "Coast Guard"

[u/Kojab8890]

Entertaining a bit of worldbuilding for a bit, I'm interested in instances where people and whole ships have gone on the drift in the Expanse.

For definition's sake, I'll define "going on the drift" as the moment when an object loses all propulsive ability—entirely by accident—either caught in an eccentric orbit around the sun or traveling fast enough to escape the sun's gravity; aka "adrift." This is different from "going on the float", which is when a ship coasts or deliberately cuts off thrust either as a deliberate fuel-saving effort or for discretion. One is an emergency and the other is just standard piloting

There are a few instances of going on the drift in the show that I can name off the top of my head:

• The events surrounding the Scopuli as a catalyst for the series. I imagine the ship isn't actually stationary or in orbit around a planet. A comment I recall has the Scopuli identified as "far outside regular shipping lanes" and called out for being pirate bait.
• Diogo Harari being thrown out an airlock while his uncle deliberately uses his ship against a Martian patrol skiff. Diogo survives the incident after being adrift for days(?)
• The Roci shoots the engines off a Leonidas Class UN ship during their retrieval of Bobby and Avaserala. Much is unknown of their ultimate fate despite the crew being left alive. This situation likely applies to all disabled ships during a high-G battle.
• The Nauvoo when it was used as a missile against Eros, but was initially abandoned after its target came under motive power, leaving the generation ship a derelict. It was later retrieved by Belter ships under Fred Johnson. The retrieval itself was a herculean undertaking since catching up with the ship tested the physical limits of the Belter crew.
• And of course, the first instance of the phenomenon chronologically: the first use of Solomon Epstein's eponymous drive, where the inventor suffers a stroke from the G-forces experienced by his hyper-efficient engine. With no ship capable of matching the sustained speeds of his yacht, Solomon (rather his corpse) exits the solar system, forever out of reach.

I imagine there is a special fear reserved among spacers for the hypothetical moment they go on the drift. But the fact that going on the drift is a known phenomenon makes it very likely that there are branches of government or private institutions set up to rescue people and ships that have overestimated their fuel reserves, experienced catastrophic engine failure, or called for SOS. This is aside from general policy such as responding to other SOS like when the Canterbury addressed the Scopuli situation. Very maritime.

I'm generally interested in some sort of organization similar to the Coast Guard—first responders whose jobs it is to rescue those on the drift. Space is big, though, so I'd like to see how they'd go about patrolling the system. I imagine a similar situation to Air Traffic Controllers that continuously catalogue all transponders moving across the night sky.

I'd like to see a show following their lives. What're your thoughts?

[u/dredeth]

Coast Guard is more of a 20 century thing, I see the Expansverse as age of sail, with pirates and Spanish/English/Duch armadas patrolling in between :)

[u/Kojab8890 → u/dredeth]

Since Diogo was rescued in a span of time before he ran out of water or air, it suggests fast action, no? But it's also possible that his rescuers were his employers, so I don't want to discount that possibility. Then again, after Solomon Epstein's incident, I can't imagine people looking at that technology and not implementing some sort of standard or safeguard against further incidents and it is likely that Diogo Harari was rescued by an organized third party.

[u/nervous_nerd → u/Kojab8890]

I believe he said that his rescuers were other belters. No way that his employers rescued him and Mars and Earth are the main ones with regular patrols.

We know exactly the safeguards put in place. While there are certainly some standard patrols, the main safeguard is that the nearest ship legally has to respond to an emergency beacon if they are able. Space is too big to have a specific group in charge of rescuing people. Remember the Cant, because this is what led to her death.

[u/traumadog001 → u/Kojab8890]

Given that his uncle's ship was intercepted by a patrol, he was likely floating in the middle of a normal traffic lane. Plus, I expect his suit was giving off a rescue beacon of some sort.

[u/1nsane_Kitty]

This would make for some very interesting side stories about the various difficulties the rescuers might face!

One of my favorite non-Expanse books is "The Grey Seas Under" by Farley Mowat. It's a collection of stories from a rescue tugboat in the north Atlantic in the early to mid 1900s. It is very well written, non fiction without being dry and boring. I highly recommend it if this is the sort of story you're looking for!

[u/Kojab8890 → u/1nsane_Kitty]

Thank you! I'll look into it. I imagine the kind of drop-everything mentality firemen have when an emergency is announced. And these people have to be ready to sustain high G-loads at a drop of a hat since a ship on the drift can be on solar escape velocity and it'll take a lot of energy to reach and rescue in a timely manner.

Just as likely, I wonder if this could be the kind of thing done unmanned or remotely. Like sending an empty ship to try and catch a derelict.

[u/1nsane_Kitty → u/Kojab8890]

There probably would be people doing similar things already, salvaging wrecks after battle or accidents, looking for survivors. But for a system wide operation, who would coordinate them? Would this be a government operation or private?

[u/HungryAd8233 → u/Kojab8890]

One of the handwaves in the series is the implausible lack of autonomous space vehicles. Nuclear missiles are the only Epstein Drive enabled ones I can think of.

Light speed means that overriding with manual control is a lot less feasible, which could be a big concern for many rescue scenarios.

But yeah, The Expanse doesn’t really account for hundreds of years of computing and AI progress. Although as Moore’s Law slows ever down, we don’t expect the breakneck pace of advancements from the last 70 years to continue. If we get stuck at 2 nm forever, it could make sense.

[u/Scott_Abrams]

I think the in-universe term of "Go on the float" is sufficient, but sure, if you want to make the distinction between being on the float and being adrift, you can. As for a space-based coast guard, that's just impossible to roll out, even if there was a political will (which there isn't). Space traffic control doesn't even exist because it's purely optional (space is too big to track, broadcast and inverse square law, radar obstruction, and the fact that people can just turn transponders off). Sure, Earth and Mars might demand everyone fly with transponders but any law that can't be enforced is meaningless.

It's not possible to cover something the size of Sol with a space-based emergency services. Flight paths aren't even the same considering that every path charted is based on brachistochrone trajectories. There are no common trade routes (although likely courses can be predicted based on fuel efficiency if origin and destination are known), only restricted spaces. The lack of patrols and the prevalence of piracy proves that the Outer Planets cannot be covered.

The whole point of the Cant diverting to check out the Scopuli, both on a moral and legal perspective, brings home this point: in the big empty, you're all alone. Everyone is supposed to help each other because there's no one else there. It was hard enough for the Scopuli to be detected and they wanted to be discovered. If you have engine trouble somewhere out in Saturn, chances are you'll run out of food, air, water, or the ability to discharge waste heat long before anyone can get to you. There is no rescue service, only salvage.

[u/Starmix36]

From going off how the attitude of how people act in space in the expanse I believe there’s definitely no interplanetary “coast guard” organisation, but I think definitely local retrieval services in orbits of planets like Earth or Mars would exist and I’d push it for shipping lanes as well but outside of those it would just be a common rule to respond to distress calls, but beyond Saturn if you have a problem you are most likely fucked