Space travel isn't exactly rocket surgery. Orbital mechanics is actually quite straightforward. Even a trip to the Moon is a walk in the park once you're in Earth orbit - and getting into orbit is a piece of piss. The only limitations are largely financial - the cost of the fuel needed to move all that extra mass of crew and life support, plus the fuel to move that fuel. The launch vehicle designs we've always used are incredibly inefficient but they do the job, in much the same way that a hammer will remove a rotten tooth.
The only other real limitations involve safety and necessity; is it really necessary to send fragile humans to do the work that robot probes can do far more safely, cost-efficiently and reliably?
The only other real limitations involve safety and necessity; is it really necessary to send fragile humans to do the work that robot probes can do far more safely, cost-efficiently and reliably?
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
