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by aqueueaqueue 489 days ago
We don't have tech to do that and I cannot see it happening this century
2 comments

Starship will reduce the cost to send a kilogram of mass into orbit by ten to a hundredfold, meaning the cost will come down to something in the order of $100 or even down to $20 per kilogram, from its current cost of $1,500. This is not science fiction, this is totally feasible in the foreseeable future.
We don't need to do this. Just put the panels on this planet. And fix the politicians brain worms / fear of other politicians with brain worms.

If we can't get a solar panel on our roofs I can't see the impetus to get them up past the moon.

And then what, you put up a cable to it able to withstand the whole atmosphere? Also, what about space debris hitting it, rotating the panels? Each one will be able to align properly or do they need a way to self-align? Do you think any of that will be able to compete with... A dumb panel here on Earth that itself continues to be cheaper each year, or more efficient production lines requiring less power to begin with?
I can see it happening, compounding growth has a way of doing that.

But, given how we keep rushing into predictable disasters, I now expect to live to experience personally, first hand, a K2-level Kessler cascade from the inside.

When people figure out the missing parts of VN replicators, that all happens over a handful of decades.