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by dgoldstein0 1683 days ago
educated guess, they get to stop on the ground to refuel. So while they need to travel further, they need to carry less fuel per each hop.

There's probably a little bit of effect like the rocket equation going on - the further you are going, the more fuel you need to get there, and the more fuel you need to carry the additional fuel. Stated a different way, fuel requirements vs distance is worse than linear, since fuel itself has weight.