Baby steps. We haven’t even invented the wheel when it comes to space flight but there are a lot a lot of interesting technologies that are off the table for political and financial reasons.
The Orion drive could get us to the nearest stars within a matter of a few decades but cost trillions of dollars not to mention launching a crapload of nuclear bombs into orbit.
Project Deadelus was another interesting concept for getting to the nearest stars in a few decades.
In any case, baby steps are cool as long as they’re steps forward. I’m thinking moon base, Mars base, asteroid mining to printing large ships in space with ores mined from asteroids.
If this drive system can be scaled up enough - like some articles suggest (Mars in weeks), humans most definitely will conquer the solar system I think.
We could retire to hollowed-out asteroids someday.