Mars vs Space Habitat Debate

Dave Logsdon" wrote, in response to
capcartoonist@...'s
Subject:

>Mars is a good stopping off point on the way to the Belt."

"Not really. "The Belt" takes up a 360 degree circle, starting at about 2.2
AU, and extending to about 3.3 AU. Mars takes up a tiny, ever-moving
point in space, less than one minute of one degree, at (perihelion to
aphelion) about 1.38 to 1.67 AU. The odds that, at any given time, the
launch window for any given, specific, Main Belt asteroid would allow
travellers from Earth orbit to pass anywhere near Mars are (pardon the pun)
astronomical....
Even after all this time, folks seem to think of space travel as the same
sort of `going from Point A to Point B' we have here on Earth. In space,
both Point A and Point B are in motion, and travel has to be timed to leave
`A' when `B' will be in the correct place, at the specific time you get
there." etc.

I really put my foot in my mouth, didn't I? Odd, too, considering that in
working on my novel I have to deal with the fact that everything is moving
in their own orbits and I have to work out orbit calculations so that I know
what my characters have to face and how they make their decisions. And when
I'm done I send my brain to the dry cleaners and have the wrinkles ironed
out. ;)