This is the largest ever object that we have safely returned from orbit
Drops cost per kg in orbit to roughly $100 (from $1000) and promises a massive increase in achievable annual upmass.
With this cost input falling out of the equation the cheapest electrons in the solar system will be harnessed in orbit rather than on earth.
That this has happened as we have discovered mechanisms by which to directly transfigure inexpensive electrons into digitally transmittable machine intelligence that can directly accelerate economic production, is either:
a happy accident;
a fairly convincing proof that we live in a simulation (built atop a random number generator seeded with the number 42);
or a testament to Elon Muskβs ability to synchronize and accelerate technological and engineering breakthroughs, piecing together convergent technologies to bring forward the singularity.
(Or perhaps all three.)
Where once we were limited by the resources we could extract from the ground, we now have access to the energy-mass of space and the seeds of the tools that we will need to begin to order and arrange it.
A moment. A historical mind blowing moment. And the merest beginnings of the beginning.