Why Space Travel Will Always Suck

Cracked has an amusing breakdown of the serious engineering and human challenges with traveling long distances through space. I think the following passage makes for a good premise for a scifi film:

When something does go wrong, the reality is going to be like Apollo 13, with astronauts scrambling desperately to MacGyver up shit like air filters out of duct tape and plastic bags.

One could imagine the last cold (or hot) years on a failing generation ship. The characters would be surrounded by and interact with jury-rigged solutions to failed systems. The great grandchildren of the first crew have to overcome one final challenge in deep space before they reach their promised land.

One bit that I don’t necessarily agree with is that any long distance vessel must be, by definition, small and cramped. More likely, it will be significantly larger than the minimum possible size: if the ship is built in space from asteroid materials, size is less of a concern than your total delta-V, a property that scales up way better than it scales down. Except for atmospheric or tight quarters maneuvering, interplanetary ships are more likely to trend toward the gigantic.