First a question... what are the circular things on Vicky's hips? Sexy-cyber-robot parts? OK... and another question... is the only activity in their universe shooting other humans? Folks seem to believe "scifi = space war" and that leaves out a lot of other, far more interesting, things we will be doing once we are out there, as well as all the specialized gear we will require and the neat new stuff we will develop as a part of deep space exploration. We wouldn't have the high-tech molybdenum alloys for bicycles and the super-sharp ceramics in kitchen knives if it wasn't for things we have learned already... and we've barely scratched the surface of what is possible. Archeological detection and collection gear: the odds that we will encounter another intelligent race at a roughly equal point in its development are slim. We will most likely find ruins and artifacts. How will we deal with this stuff? Other environments: flying through the upper atmospheres of gas giants and bouncing (tethered?) on small asteroids will require specialized clothing and equipment. An asteroid miner may have to worry about claim jumping varmints, but dehydration and losing his bearings are more threatening. How is a kevlar vest going to stop sentient green sand? Is your solar sail harness manuverable enough to escape buffeting winds as well as the unwelcome attentions of large flying beasties? One of the things I detested most about Stormship Troopers (and I picked the movie apart with my equally mercilous friends) was the idea that we'd land on a world where the enemy forces were known to be hard-shelled inectoids and blast them with projectile weapons. :pffft: I kill ants by pouring boiling water on them... they can't disperse the heat fast enough. (Secondary benefits are that it cleans the counters and my cat isn't poisoned by aerosol drift.) Critters such as spiders(?) which breathe through tiny openings on their legs are vulnerable to suffocation when sprayed especially by oily stuff. Blasting something wearing armor is a waste of good ammo. About that sentient green sand.... :) We have tanks which are reinforced against hardened depleted plutonium warheads, because >>>we<<< have depleted plutonium warheads. What happens when we come up against something not from our own imaginations? In space we will bump that wall repeatedly, and quite possibly with bitter results unless we are flexible enough to learn very, very quickly. My recommendations? Everybody and their cousin has already done some version of space marines. Why not do something different. We are going to have to live, explore, develop, invent, and feed ourselves out there. We will need labs were we can make and purify water and air, among other basics. We will need transportation gear. We will need ways to keep our bearings in a 3D environment. We will also need ways to analyze and record what we are doing. We will need lots of STUFF. And maybe, by the time we run into those white mice who are secretly running the universe, we'll have the know-how to actually build that better mousetrap. Carolly