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I don’t think interstellar travel necessarily implies much better tech than we currently have. I mean, Project Orion style nuke-powered spaceships can get you there in a lifetime but unless you wanna nuke your colony whenever someone needs to leave you still might be stuck on the surface.

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What? A nuke in space will have very little impact on a planet. A nuke on a planet doesn't have much impact on the planet either: see all the tests done on earth.

It's a non-trivial number of nukes on every single launch. If it becomes popular, it will have a very noticeable effect on a planet.

Nuclear propulsion isn't the only alternative we have for reaching low orbits. Land-powered rockets are probably much better, and there is always the odd high-elevation rail or space elevator (but those get bad fast on large planets).

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