[Hawk1976]

I always wonder why we would choose to return to a gravity well after we mastered not needing one. It doesn’t make much sense to confine yourself to a gravity well.

[cripplecreek]

In the followup book to Clarke's 2001 (3001) humanity had largely left the gravity well of earth behind. The people mostly lived in the ring around the planet at the top of the space elevators.

In spaceflight, big really is better but not for launch from the surface.

Daedalus next to a Saturn V