Your argument is short-sighted. It assumes that success must be measured by immediate scalability to a K2 civilization. The Pesse canoe wasn’t the final product

Your argument is short-sighted. It assumes that success must be measured by immediate scalability to a K2 civilization. The Pesse canoe wasn’t the final product — it was an early, rudimentary tool that eventually enabled modern seafaring and global commerce. Similarly, Starship and current rocketry aren’t expected to instantly create a K2 civilization; they are necessary stepping stones that lay the foundation for future, transformative technologies. Even if rockets can barely scale to a K1 civilization without severe environmental consequences, that doesn’t diminish their value. Affordable, frequent access to space is exactly what we need to build the infrastructure for later breakthroughs — such as Von Neumann replicators — which could then accelerate the expansion of space-based industry exponentially. Without the ability to reliably launch materials into orbit, we wouldn’t even get close to the point where self-replication becomes feasible. Regarding environmental concerns, while launching 15,000 tons per day might sound like a lot, the estimated 150 million tons of CO2-equivalent per year is only about 0.3% of current global emissions. Moreover, if we shift industry into space, Earth’s overall emissions could eventually drop, making the trade-off much more acceptable. And that's completely putting aside the potential to synthesize rocket fuel using carbon sequestration, which would make the launches carbon neutral. And on Mars: criticizing SpaceX for not yet having a Sabatier plant misses the point. SpaceX is trying to solve the biggest pain point of Mars colonization: the immense cost of launching mass to orbit. They can solve the other pain points later or leave it to others to do that.