> Does solar offer a pathway to doing that today, once you account for the costs of battery storage?
Trivially. If we push hard, more than three orders of magnitude are possible (even for overall energy use, which is itself around an order of magnitude more than electricity), even without launching anything to orbit.
IMO it's much better if we go to space after the first of those orders of magnitude, rather than pursuing K1 on the ground.
> I don’t think solar is going to lead us to fusion or antimatter powered spaceships.
Solar is as likely as fission to lead to either of these things. Each of the four is a different beast.
Solar is also the only way to scale up to a K2, which would trivially obviate both even when the ships' primary propulsion is solar (laser) sails.
Trivially. If we push hard, more than three orders of magnitude are possible (even for overall energy use, which is itself around an order of magnitude more than electricity), even without launching anything to orbit.
IMO it's much better if we go to space after the first of those orders of magnitude, rather than pursuing K1 on the ground.
> I don’t think solar is going to lead us to fusion or antimatter powered spaceships.
Solar is as likely as fission to lead to either of these things. Each of the four is a different beast.
Solar is also the only way to scale up to a K2, which would trivially obviate both even when the ships' primary propulsion is solar (laser) sails.