Bolding mine. And yes, yes they did. 
My specuation based on what little they explained is that the ship was built in space, not just assembled there so there is no need to restrict the space used to make it easier to transport from Earth to orbit. Add to that this ship has to be home to 8 people for six years and you have psychological reason to give them as much living space as possible.
Plus you need room to move the cameras around the set. 
Update: Season ended with the last episode (super short season), and now the show has been cancelled.
That figures, just when it was getting interesting. So what was in Pod 4?
I think it may have found an audience if it didn’t try that lame genre-straddling thing. I’m surprised it didn’t get anywhere, since people who watch sci-fi on TV will watch anything you throw at them.
Space whales.
Saw on io9 that it had been cancelled, with a link to Ace Showbiz. However, the same site has a later post saying that it’s not cancelled but ABC don’t know when to schedule the last 5 episodes.
Okay, I doubt it’s going to come back for a second season but there is a chance Americans will get to see it through to the end eventually. Outside of the US, it’s likely to be a similar situation to Pushing Daisies, where the full run will air before ABC gets its act together.
Not watched the last episode yet. The main problem I have with the show is that it’s very boring.
Yeah, you can see the ratings tank as people realized that all of the sex and nudity in the pilot was just a teaser. As they cut back on the sex, the ratings dropped.
This was a show that couldn’t make up its mind, so the viewers made it up for them.
With that said, I do hope they find a way to show the last 5 eps.
They’re still showing new episodes up here in Canada. My PVR recorded one the other day. I thought it was quite good, if a bit heavy on exposition.
I saw the latest episode last night in the USA via other means. Much of the plot they’ve been hinting at is revealed, including:
- much on Beta’s history
- the reason for the solar system tour
- a certain group of Hollywood writers are way too enamored with the concept of fractal as science magic
So if you’ve been watching and waiting for a big fractal reveal, I would fractally recommend catching this completely fractal episode when you can.
Fractal!
Just watched the final ep. It was ep 13, “Kiss.”
The show got fairly good. The communication system was indeed realtime. The producer acknowledged regular radio of course wouldn’t be.
If you’re interested in where the show was going, the producer revealed quite a bit here.
I’ll let you all read it, but I just want to say I totally nailed Nadya’s deal.
Thanks for the link; interesting read. Doesn’t seem like I would have liked the show any more or worse as it would have progressed, but at least he put a lot more thought into it than most shows (like his comments on “Lost”).