In The Expanse, what happens if you enter the "back" side of the ring?

Question

In The Expanse, what happens if you enter the "back" side of the ring? I have not read the books. In the TV series, it seems like no one even thinks to ask.

Maybe it is like this Stargate explanation to basically the same question.

If the Station ring were not on the edge of a bubble, then maybe you would just come out through the other side of the Station ring.

-> O                                 O ->
   O <-                           <- O 

But with the presence of the bubble on the Station side, that explanation is not possible.

Uranus        Neptune                                   Station
                                                          ____
                                                         /    \
       -> O                                             O ->   |
                                                         \    /
                                                          ----
                                                          ____
                                                         /    \
          O <-                                     ? <- O      |
                                                         \    /
                                                          ----

Answer 1

We don't know.

I've searched through all the books starting with Abaddon's Gate (which is when the humans first travel to the Ring) and none of them depict an event in which a ship or probe is sent through the "back" of the Ring.

The books describe the Ring as

an artificially sustained Einstein-Rosen bridge. You go through the Ring, you don’t come out the other side here.

_{Abaddon's Gate, p. 137}

An Einstein-Rosen bridge is a type of wormhole.

I would guess that an object passing through the Ring from the back (i.e. traveling toward the Sun) would either (a) be destroyed as soon as it flew between the interior of the Ring or (b) would pass through it harmlessly and without effect (i.e. it would not enter the Ring space and would continue traveling toward the Sun in local space).

I don't think such a ship would enter the Ring space because we know that the Ring is directional when passing from the Ring space into a local solar system. For one, there is no way to pass through the "back" of a ring gate from the Ring space -- the "space" between the Rings on the boundary of the Ring space is a void (light blue in the TV show, total blackness in the books) which ships cannot enter. Furthermore, the Ring Station has a direct line of sight to each Ring's local star (e.g. the Sun) which makes it possible for the Ring Station to

blow up the Ring's local star and "autoclave" the whole system.

The Ring must be directional when traveling from the Ring space to the local solar system for this to be possible. If the Ring is directional when traveling from the Ring space to the local solar system, therefore, it stands to reason that it is most likely directional when traveling from the local solar system to the Ring space. We can't rule it out for sure, though.

---

I suspect the reason no one ever tried to enter the Ring from the "back" is that there is almost nothing in the solar system beyond the Ring. The Ring is just beyond the orbit of Uranus, and the only human colony beyond that is on Triton, one of Neptune's moons. Even then, a ship traveling from Neptune toward the Sun wouldn't necessarily pass by the Ring in that direction -- if Neptune and the Ring are on opposite sides of the solar system then the Ring would actually be even farther from Neptune than any other human colony in the solar system.

Given the Ring network's purpose as a "road" network between solar systems it makes perfect sense to place a Ring at the outer limits of a solar system and allow travel through it only to and from the side facing the local star -- that's the only direction ships will ever realistically want to travel into and out of. Allowing travel through the Ring in only that one direction is not really a limitation.

Answer 2

The authorised comic series The Expanse: Dragon Tooth (by BOOM! Studios) discusses this.

Avasarala: You'll forgive the expression, but what happens when someone flies a ship up its backside?

Admiral: Nothing. The dark side is inert. We don't fully understand how that works yet. But every probe we've sent through from that side simply passes through the ring without effect. It's basically just a big empty hula hoop in space.

_{^{Dragon Tooth #9}}

Answer 3

The wiki says the ring is a wormhole.

However if it is a wormhole, it's probably not an accurate depiction of one, as according to Space.com.

In two-dimensional diagrams, the wormhole mouth is shown as a circle. Seen in person, a wormhole would be a sphere. A gravitationally distorted view of space on the other side can be seen on the sphere's surface.

In other words, it should not be a ring, but a sphere, and therefore as I understand it, no direction for entry.

As far as I have read in the books, to my recollection it is never stated what happens when entering one side versus the other, but I haven't read them all.

Therefore, given what we know of wormholes and no other information that I'm aware of, I'd say you'd reach the ring station the same by entering the ring from either side.