Some technologies have a minimum size & mass. A fusion powerplant will mass 50,000 tonnes. There is no way around it. A greenhouse for 10,000 people will mass one-million tonnes. Again there is no way around it because of the square footage required to grow food. The biggest rocket has a payload of approx. 35 tonnes, so it would take over 1400 of them to build a single orbiting powerplant, and 30,000 of them to build a greenhouse for 10,000 people.

The amount we can launch with rockets is directly related to how many rockets we build. One rocket, one payload. Rockets themselves can't build a bigger launch capacity, unless they are used to build a Orbital Skyhook, or something like it. I just happen to really, really like the Orbital Skyhook (ARMXER) concept. A Skyhook can be used to build additional and/or larger Skyhooks.

Orbital Skyhooks have many advantages, such as exponential scalability; payloads no longer ride a 'controlled explosion' at the bottom of a gargantuan tank full of highly explosive fuel; the atmosphere is transited at speeds less than Mach 4; the system is electrical so chemical fuels do not need to be mined in large quantities to support operations; launch rates are high frequency and capacity is always larger than demand; rendezvous take place all over the world so all countries will be able to participate directly in providing supplies, manufacturing components, and aircraft services; millions of people will benefit from experiencing a ride into space, this can only increase education worldwide, inspiring billions.

I think the benefits easily justify tackling any technical challenges inherent to the ARMXER system