Quote Originally Posted by LordCdrMilitant View Post
First off, if an [untrained] author could understand how and why it works, then I wouldn't need 4+2 years and $300000 of university education to learn that. If you can communicate the complexities of orbital mechanics, aerodynamics, material science, and thermodynamics to a layperson through literature, please please please right a book right now and send it to me overnight by the weekend, I have exams next week.

In short, leave the science to the scientists, the engineering to the engineers, and the economics to the economists. Likewise, I'll leave the writing to the authors, because I'd be a truly terrible writer.
Traditionally, many hard science fiction authors have been scientists. David Brin and Gregory Benford - authors of the hard science fiction classic Heart of the Comet, are both astrophysicists. Larry Niven and Greg Egan - two fairly prominent voices - both studied mathematics up to at least the graduate level. Sir Arthur C. Clarke, while not a practicing scientist professionally, worked on scientific journals, wrote technical material, and had connections like you would not believe. Stephen Baxter has a doctorate in engineering and taught math and science prior to becoming a writer full time. I could go on.

In any case, writing hard science fiction does not necessarily mean getting the nitty-gritty details of scientific or engineering processes correct, unless one is writing something super-technical like The Martian, it means adhering effectively to principles. The level of understanding necessary to write about established material in a given field for dissemination to the public is much lower than that necessary to actively pursue research to advance that field. This isn't even a specifically scientific thing, Tom Clancy became one of the most famous authors in America for writing about espionage and the military industrial complex in a way the was sufficiently accurate that he ended up meeting with actual military officials despite having a very limited military background. This sort of thing is very common.