“its the sort of big idea that everyone should be entertaining”
No, it’s the sort of stupid idea a first year engineering student should be able to point out the massive flaws in. We’d be much better off focusing on ideas that might actually work.
Yup. Like that fellow Walter Hohmann, figuring out the orbital mechanics of getting spacecraft to the planets (in 1925) when there was no known way to even get into Earth orbit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Hohmann
Aim high.
Per aspera ad astra
and my personal favorite,
Plus ultra (rough translation - go beyond)