Ars OpenForum

Erbium68 said:

Maybe this is the explanation of the Fermi Paradox. All the civilisations that don't run out of available energy before they establish a colony on the next planet, fail to get there because they can't make it through their own space junk.
Bacterial colonies die when their own waste products prevent them obtaining food from outside.

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The solution to too much space debris is to make thick-walled steel vessels. Something like Starship wouldn't even notice a piece of debris like would punch a hole right through the walls of something like Dragon.

One can always brute force the issue of debris. It's just not economical to do so if you don't need to (or if you're not building a massive launcher anyways where square-cube rule dictates thick walls).