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by lostgame 3007 days ago
>> and you need to create a floating habitat that is also an interplanetary spacecraft port. Frankly, that's actually pretty far outside our realm of technology at present.

You just pretty much described the ISS, but I get your point. That's in orbit around Earth. :P

1 comments

The ISS isn't floating, it's in freefall. We've been doing rendezvous in freefall for half a century. Launching out of a deep gravity well at 0.9g means a rocket operating with a tremendous amount of thrust and a launch pad (or area) for the rocket to take off from. Making a precision landing through atmosphere from interplanetary cruise onto a floating platform is also very difficult. SpaceX has managed to achieve something similar but much less challenging and with much lower stakes and it requires a vessel that uses thousands of tonnes of concrete and steel.