History Main / ConvenientlyClosePlanet

Space is huge, and the distances involved are far beyond normal human experience. On Earth, if your car breaks down on a country road, you can reasonably expect a rest stop or a gas station within 50 km (ca. 30 miles). Space, however, is not like that country road. If you set your space RV in a randomly-selected trajectory and continue going straight until you get within 50 ''million'' kilometers of a star, the chances are (quite literally) astronomically high that you will reach the edge of the galaxy, keep going, and never enter another galaxy... ever. For another example, every planet orbiting the Sun (including the likes of Jupiter and Saturn) could easily fit between the Earth and its own moon. That's how few planets there are in our big solar system.

A subtrope of ArtisticLicenseSpace and SciFiWritersHave/NoSenseOfDistance. A common side effect of SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale. A sort of ArtisticLicenseGeography, though the term "Geography" isn't usually applied to space because it's so big and different. Generally a necessity for CasualInterplanetaryTravel.

** In ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'', Dexter Jettster notes that the planet Kamino is 12 parsecs from the Rishi Maze. 12 parsecs is under 40 light-years, utterly tiny in galactic terms (the Milky Way is 170,000 light-years in diameter). It defies belief that Obi Wan could know about the Rishi Maze yet ''still'' think Kamino was a myth, considering he lives in a setting where a good chunk of the galaxy has been colonized and 40 light-years is at most a day-long voyage. It gets worse later when Obi Wan specifies the locations of Kamino and the Rishi Maze on a map; scaling from this map renders the entire ''Star Wars'' galaxy as about 300 light-years in diameter.

** The UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 games depict all the worlds to be close enough to fly to in a spaceship at highway speeds. Either [[AlienSky all 20 planets should be visible from each other]], or Ratchet should die of old age before the end of the first game. Not helped is that the original game describes the local worlds as being part of a solar system, yet the Galaxy Map and every ''other'' depiction suggests it's actually a galaxy.

** The trope is [[AvertedTrope averted]] starting with the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 titles, where Aphelion has to enter {{Hyperspace}} to get anywhere. The exception is ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFullFrontalAssault Full Frontal Assault]]'', where the worlds involved are indeed part of a solar system, but are still close enough to all be visibly the same size when departing for them.

** The UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 games depict all the worlds to be close enough to fly to in a spaceship at highway speeds. Either [[AlienSky all 20 planets should be visible from each other]], or [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Ratchet should die of old age before the end of the first game]]. Not helped is that the original game describes the local worlds as being part of a solar system, yet the Galaxy Map and every ''other'' depiction suggests it's actually a galaxy.

** In season one episode "Act of Contrition", Starbuck is incredibly lucky to have been right next to a planet when she had to punch out.

A subtrope of ArtisticLicenseSpace and NoSenseOfDistance. A common side effect of SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale. A sort of ArtisticLicenseGeography, though the term "Geography" isn't usually applied to space because it's so big and different. Generally a necessity for CasualInterplanetaryTravel.

A subtrope of ArtisticLicenseSpace. A common side effect of SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale. A sort of ArtisticLicenseGeography, though the term "Geography" isn't usually applied to space because it's so big and different. Generally a necessity for CasualInterplanetaryTravel.

* Averted in ''Anime/VoltesV'', where Prince Gohl[[spoiler:a.k.a. Kentaro Gō]] landed on Earth completely by accident after escaping Boazania's cruel caste system. Jangal also later expresses bewilderment that he landed on a planet so far away. AllThereInTheManual material states that Boazania is located in Messier 4 in the Scorpio constellation; this means Boazania is at least 7,175 light years away from Earth.

* In a 1324 Christian epic called ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'', the seven planets in {{Heaven}} are so close the narrator doesn't realize he's left the Sun and been flown to Mars until he sees the planet's blood red beneath a MindHive crucifix.

* Played cautiously straight and lampshaded in ''The Eternal Flame'', the second book in Creator/GregEgan's ''Literature/{{Orthogonal}}'' trilogy. Considering that the entire book takes place on (and around) a GenerationShip in AnotherDimension whose dimension of time is [[ItMakesSenseInContext analogous to the main cast's perception of space]], the scientific importance of capturing a nearby Conveniently Close Asteroid is compounded by the knowledge that they will probably never come close enough to another one to get any use out of it. However, it's also partially subverted by the fact that it ''does'' take the crew of the ''Gnat'' several days to reach it.

** ''Series/TheMandalorian'': the second episode of the second season has the titular character going from one inhabited planet to another at explicitly sublight speeds in at most days. This would mean that the planets were in the same star system... yet, for some reason, it was also explicitly stated that the planets were in different sectors (a "sector" in ''Star Wars'' usually encompasses multiple star systems).

** In ''Film/StarTrek2009'', the planet Delta Vega is an apparently Class M planet (terrestrial, breathable atmosphere, earthlike gravity) that's far enough away from Vulcan that Kirk is exiled there ''after'' the Enterprise has already sped away from the [[spoiler:ex-]]planet and Kirk and Spock have had a long fight about what to do next; it's far enough away from Vulcan not to be pulled into the black hole created by [[spoiler:the destruction of Vulcan]]; and yet it's close enough to Vulcan for Ambassador Spock to be able to see it unaided in the daytime sky, as big as the Moon from Earth, [[spoiler:as it implodes]]. ''Star Trek'' does at least have the excuse of the fact that the Enterprise has FTL travel, which would make a brief stop to drop off Kirk much more likely.
** In ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'', the confrontation between the Enterprise and a BigBad vessel is out near the moon ~250,000 miles out. In pretty much no time at all they are caught in Earth's gravity and end up in Earth's atmosphere. Now it is possible if the Enterprise was drifting fast it could get to Earth that quickly, [[ScifiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale but at that speed it would go through the (only ~200-mile-thick) atmosphere of Earth and smack into the surface in no time at all, barely having a chance to slow down in the atmosphere and think about their situation.]]

** In ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', given the speeds at which starships are canonically stated to cruise, every planet in the galaxy is conveniently close. Kirk routinely flies the Enterprise away from the PlanetOfTheWeek at warp 1 (i.e. ''at,'' not faster than, the speed of light). Its maximum safe cruising speed is warp 6, which is either 216x the speed of light or 392x the speed of light depending on whom you talk to -- but even assuming the faster of these two speeds, it should still take four days ''just'' to get from the Solar system to Alpha Centauri (our closest neighbor in interstellar space). Getting from Earth to the edge of the (8000 light-year-wide) Federation should take a decade. Instead, Star Fleet routinely sends them on assignments to the Neutral Zone and back home to Earth again in a matter of weeks or even just a few days.

The solar system and the universe are far bigger than anyone expected them to be. People who are interested in space are pretty much flabbergasted when they try to take it in. The Moon is about 384,400 km (238,900 mi) away from the Earth. Ignoring the air/gravity/etc issues, if there were a highway to get to the Moon, it would take you ''five straight months of non-stop driving'' in your space RV at normal lead-foot highway speeds to get there. And the Moon is ridiculously close by astronomical standards. At the same speed, it would take 150 ''years'' to get to the Sun (150 million km) and ''4460'' years to Neptune (4.3 billion km when it's closest to Earth). As for things outside the Solar System? Well, try Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun. At 1.3 parsec (40.3 trillion km), it would take no less than '''41.8 million years''' at the same speed to get there. Have fun figuring out how long it would take to go to things like the Andromeda Galaxy (770 kiloparsecs from Earth).[[note]]A rough estimate is 24.7 trillion years. That's 1795 times older than the age of the universe.[[/note]]

[[caption-width-right:350:The Earth and the Moon to scale.[[note]]How far apart are they? You could put ''every other planet in the Solar System'' in the space between them. Yeah.[[/note]]]]

** Krypton itself was apparently so close to Earth during [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks the Golden Age]] that baby Kal-El could make the trip in a matter of months, possibly faster, in a rocket about the size of a coffin, with no mention whatsoever of FasterThanLightTravel. The concurrent [[Radio/TheAdventuresOfSuperman radio show]] took this to its logical conclusion by specifying that Krypton was actually in ''our own Solar System,'' orbiting the Sun exactly opposite the Earth. Later revisions have placed Krypton further away, often in other galaxies, with Kal-El's rocket explicitly having FTL ability.

[[AcceptableBreaksFromReality This does not deter sci-fi writers, though!]] A chance to land and explore a SingleBiomePlanet, [[TownWithADarkSecret planet with a dark secret]], or answer a distress call from a LostColony on a moon offers [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools far more story options]] than having a spaceship silently [[GhostShip cruising for eternity]], running out of power and with a [[EverybodysDeadDave group of mummifying bodies on board]].

[[AcceptableBreaksFromReality This does not deter sci-fi writers, though!]] A chance to visit a SingleBiomePlanet or a [[TownWithADarkSecret planet with a dark secret]] offers [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools far more story options]] than a spacecraft silently [[GhostShip cruising for eternity]], running out of power and with a [[EverybodysDeadDave group of mummifying bodies on board]].

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Film — Animated]]

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

* ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' uses Mars as a thematic example. Wells' novel derives from (and deconstructs) earlier "invasion stories," in which Germany, France, etc. invaded Britain and were soundly defeated by the story's end. The idea of Mars invading Earth is a holdover from that (Earth = England; Mars = Europe).

** Mostly averted, particularly in season 1, episode 2, "Water".

*** At the season four finale, the [[spoiler:destruction of a sun]] speeds up their spacecraft, sending it four million light years, where it stops ''inside another galaxy''. The odds of taking a random trajectory out of your solar system and ending up in another solar system are already stated above as huge - the odds of getting to another ''galaxy'' at a set distance on a random trajectory are just astronomical.
** In ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', in the season 4 opener their spacecraft drops out of hyperspace early, right in a solar system and on a course for an AsteroidThicket.
** ''Series/StargateUniverse'': Played with in the episode "Light"; the ship runs out of fuel in the middle of deep space and all hope is thought to be lost, because how unlikely it is for them just to wander across a solar system with a habitable planet. But the (seemingly) intelligent ship they're on used the last of its resources to plot a desperate course to a system with three "habitable" (the most survivable one rarely gets above freezing) planets. One character even gives a monologue on [[LampshadeHanging just what the chances are]]. Then it's subverted at the end when a slingshot around another planet has altered their course, avoiding the planets and causing them to head straight towards the sun. [[spoiler: Unbeknownst to them at the time, the ship ''[[ExactlyWhatIAimedAt intended]]'' this to happen, as it refuels via diving into stars and scooping up stellar material]].

** At the end of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'''s 'A Time to Stand', the crew are marooned without warp drive, 17 years from a Federation base. Nevertheless in the next episode, ''Rock and Shoals'', they manage at short notice to hide in a conveniently close [[SpaceClouds nebula]] where they find an uncharted planet.

* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'': Gru's Moon mission takes only a couple of hours from takeoff to landing, despite involving an actual orbit of the Moon, a round trip that normally takes a week at best.