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Worldbuilding

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    $\begingroup$ I suppose I underestimated the importance of something like Kessler syndrome. Space disasters like that are a lot harder to deal with than disasters on the ground - although I'm trying to think of something to compare it to, and failing. $\endgroup$
    – HDE 226868 ♦
    Commented Dec 14, 2016 at 15:48
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    $\begingroup$ The closest thing I can think of is a constant high speed wind storm at a terrestrial airport. Dirt and grit get into everything. $\endgroup$
    – Green
    Commented Dec 14, 2016 at 15:50
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    $\begingroup$ I think you deserve a point just for the note about hyper-velocity feces $\endgroup$
    – Samwise
    Commented Dec 14, 2016 at 22:53
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    $\begingroup$ About "People aren't there to transport", don't forget that if you miss your transfer orbit window, it might not even be feasible to make the trip that time, because you would need significantly more fuel to hit the target point in the target orbit. At some point, you may have to either just depart anyway, scrub the flight entirely, or load up more fuel, which all else being equal will impair your payload capacity, which may have other implications (can't deliver cargo which you have entered into transport contracts for, for example). $\endgroup$
    – user
    Commented Dec 15, 2016 at 14:56
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    $\begingroup$ @Nzall, your nitpick is accurate, only a few of these are specific to space travel. To be fair though, my answer and edits are for the question before HDE added the specific to space travel. Otherwise, I'd totally agree with you. $\endgroup$
    – Green
    Commented Dec 18, 2016 at 22:37