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A comment on Why Spaceflight Will Never Be as Safe as Modern Aviation.

Re:Why Spaceflight Will Never Be as Safe as Modern Aviation by rwmj on Wednesday February 11, 2015 @04:24PM (#9035800)
Obviously with current rockets, it's necessary for that energy to be expended nearly all at once (8-12 minutes). But is that a law of nature or just a drawback of current technology? In other words, could you travel slowly into space?
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Re:Why Spaceflight Will Never Be as Safe as Modern Aviation by edlinfan on Wednesday February 11, 2015 @07:08PM (#9036545)
Sure, if you use a space elevator. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator

This won't get you out of Earth orbit, though. If you want to go to other planets, you have no choice other than reaching escape velocity.

However, once in orbit, I'm pretty sure you can reach escape velocity as gradually as you want. You'd just gradually increase your orbit's apogee until you stop orbiting.

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Re:Why Spaceflight Will Never Be as Safe as Modern Aviation by coldtea on Wednesday February 11, 2015 @05:02PM (#9036011)
You have to reach escape velocity to get out of earth, so you can't be that slow.

Also, the distances are so great that "travelling slowly" is not very convenient anyway.

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