Behind the scenes — the Starships

Commonly in science fiction you'll find two main modes of interstellar travel. In the first, common to several well-known franchises on the big screen, ships are plentiful and swift, crossing between star systems within the attention span of the average theater-goer. It seems like everyone has an interstellar craft, as small as two-seater runabouts and small fighters. In the second, less common, model, ships are still limited to sub-light speeds and journeys require lifetimes, either using multi-generation ships or sleepers. In this genre there is virtually no interstellar commerce because it takes too long to be practical.

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