History Main / ConvenientlyClosePlanet

* Averted in most of {{UrsulaKLeGuin's Ursula K. Le Guin's}} science fiction. Planets of the Ekumen are widely spread apart and near light-speed ships are used to travel between them, which even at those speeds is show to take some time.

* The anime industry ''loves'' to use this trope with the Moon. Not even CowboyBebop escapes from it. What else could explain moon debris raining on Earth?

The anime industry ''loves'' to use this trope with the Moon.
* Not even CowboyBebop escapes from it. What else could explain moon debris raining on Earth?

** You also must factor in the luck of Teela Brown.

* In the 2001 version of ''PlanetOfTheApes'', Mark Walberg travels from an unnamed ringed planet to Earth in what seems like a few minutes. Even if the ringed planet was Saturn, that's still pretty danged close.

** Voyager 2 is also not headed toward any particular star, for the same reason. If left alone, it should pass by star Sirius in about 296,000 years.

** Pioneer 10 is heading in the direction of the star Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus at roughly 2.6 AU per year. If Aldebaran stays put where it is, it will take Pioneer 10 about 2 million years to reach it

Space, however, is not like a country road. You can pick a random direction in your spacecraft and the chances are high that if you go straight on that route, you will go out of the galaxy and perhaps ''never'' go anywhere close to another star... ever. Even if you did find a star system, the sheer amount of course correction, fuel, slowing down to the speed of the star system (they're moving too), finding a [[AllPlanetsAreEarthLike safe planet]] and entering orbit or landing would require a ''very'' capable spacecraft, not one that is barely limping along.

* In the 2001 version of ''PlanetOfTheApes'', Mark Walberg travels from an unnamed ringed planet to earth in what seems like a few minutes. Even if the ringed planet was Saturn, that's still pretty danged close.

* In the 2001 version of ''PlanetOfTheApes'', Mark Walberg travels from an unnamed ringed planet to earth in what seems like a few minutes. Even if the ringed planet was Saturn, that's pretty danged close.

* ''{{Firefly}}'' takes place in a single solar system, but it makes a big deal out of how far apart things are. In the episode "Out of Gas", the eponymous ship breaks down in the back of beyond, and the crew is well aware that they are out of range of anything habitable by shuttle.

Even inside a solar system this applies. Planets do not occupy the same place all the time - they orbit their sun. If they don't orbit the sun itself then they orbit something else that orbits that sun. A planet does not occupy its entire orbit at once, either. For example, the position of the Earth during summer and the position during winter is a difference of 300 million kilometers. A space traveler who doesn't check his Earth calendar might be in for an unpleasant surprise.

** Pioneer 11 is headed toward the constellation of Aquila (The Eagle), Northwest of the constellation of Sagittarius. Barring incident, Pioneer 11 will pass near the star Lambda (λ) Aquilae in about 4 million years time.
** The New Horizons probe to Pluto was launched in 2006 and is the fastest spacecraft ever lobbed off the planet. It's going to take a mere ''nine years'' to get there.

A subtrope of SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale, SpaceDoesNotWorkThatWay and YouFailAstronomyForever. If they not only find a planet but land next to what they're looking for see ItsASmallWorldAfterAll.

Even inside a solar system this applies. Planets do not occupy the same place all the time - they orbit their sun. If they don't orbit the sun itself then they orbit something else that orbits that sun. A planet does not occupy its entire orbit at once, either. For example, the position of the Earth during summer and the position during winter is a difference of 300 million kilometers. A space traveller who doesn't check his Earth calendar might be in for an unpleasant surprise.

Even inside a solar system this applies. Planets do not occupy the same place all the time - they orbit their sun. If they don't orbit the sun itself then they orbit something else that orbits that sun. A planet does not occupy its entire orbit at once, either. Getting to the orbit of say, Jupiter, and getting to Jupiter itself are two vastly different things.