With a large rock I can picture the landing process requiring enough paperwork to keep a team of AIs busy. Requests for confirmed flight plans from every nation you'd fly over, demands for on-board observers from nations near your landing site, the usual suspects claiming nefarious intent even if this is your hundredth safe landing...
Even smaller inhabited rocks would probably have a difficult time overcoming the, "Killer rock from space," meme. 100 meter rock = "Those reckless fen are going to kill us all!" while a 1000 meter ship of more traditional appearance would simply viewed as fen over exuberance, "Where will you find a port to offload your cargo at? Nobody has facilities for something that huge!"
Which provides an obvious solution. Made your inhabitable rock and cover it with a hull structure. Presto, no more evil dinosaur killing space rock visible to scare people.
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Will the transhumanist future have catgirls? Does Japan still exist? Well, there is your answer.
Even smaller inhabited rocks would probably have a difficult time overcoming the, "Killer rock from space," meme. 100 meter rock = "Those reckless fen are going to kill us all!" while a 1000 meter ship of more traditional appearance would simply viewed as fen over exuberance, "Where will you find a port to offload your cargo at? Nobody has facilities for something that huge!"
Which provides an obvious solution. Made your inhabitable rock and cover it with a hull structure. Presto, no more evil dinosaur killing space rock visible to scare people.
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Will the transhumanist future have catgirls? Does Japan still exist? Well, there is your answer.