How far are we from creating self-sustainable energy in space?

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>>9096622
we'll be able to do all of that the second we can build probes and scientific instruments in space itself
once we get that, weight will no longer be an issue, and we can make them into full blown science ships with every instrument imaginable for what ever mission is desired

considering there's no less than five different companies working on extracting and refining space resources right now, as well as multiple governments, 10 years tops

>>9096622
You have some basic terminology errors.

We have had "self-sustainable energy" since the first spacecraft: solar energy. Once the solar panels unfurl, every space mission has as much energy as it could ever want.

>Can a ship/probe gather and harvest materials from asteroids to convert to burnable fuel?
No. Fuels are typically volatile, so they have not remained on the tiny asteroids. Planets like Mars are a better place to make fuel.

>We've got a lot of metals we could burn.
False. You don't burn metals.

Basically, you are conflating "energy", "fuel", and "propellant". Energy is space is free (solar power), but propellant (reaction mass) is scarce. Fuel is basically propellant which contains chemical energy.

>>9097577

If we sent a shuttle/probe beyond our solar system, would it still be able to get enough solar energy to continue, or at least continue broadcast? I know that's a long shot, and signals would take ages to transmit back to us, but it's like asking is the ship is dead or just in a coma and going to wake eventually?

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>>9097577

>False. You don't burn metals.

Not entirely true, aluminium can be burned and even get semi-respectable specific impulse in a rocket (over 2000 m/s). Aluminium oxygen rockets are actually a good idea to use on the Moon or anywhere else where hydrogen is scarce. Both aluminium and oxygen are everywhere in lunar regolith.