...Not to mention the maintenance and upkeep! What's to keep asteroids and comets from tearing that Dyson sphere apart?

As far as sentimental value of a dying home system is concerned, I don't think that justifies such a colossal, wasteful effort to try to keep a dying star system alive!

Wouldn't THAT be the ultimate pork barrel project... (for those of you who are not familiar with the term, a pork barrel project is a useless, wasteful pet program a congressman wants to keep funding because it brings government money to his district.)



Edited by - Chandrasekhar Limit on 17-04-2003 05:09:09

Well I think it does so there, nananananaa neener neener neener (More childlike noises and insults)

Lather, Rinse and Repeat as neccary until you agree with me.

"It is said that revenge is a dish best served cold, it is very cold in space."
~Khan, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

I remember seeing the Dyson Sphere episode in Star Trek Next Gen. I can remember how unsettling the who notion was...that HUGE sphere around a sun, with enough space for some 2,000,000 planets' worth population on the inside (say, 6 billion people each planet, maybe more!). But when I flew into the system that was the outside of the sphere i was VERY disturbed at the "City-like landscape" of the outside surface of the Dyson Sphere. Even more disturbing was flying INTO the Dyson Sphere. I thought it was unsettling seeing the Star Trek Episode with the Dyson, but flying into it in a space-sim game left me feeling like...GET ME OUT OF HERE!!! I'm sure I finished that level in record time, I was so eager to get out.... I didn't even mind that it was too easy, I was just glad to get out of that place!!!!

To Zertz:

Heh, remind me not to vote for you in case you do run for public office.




Edited by - Chandrasekhar Limit on 17-04-2003 05:20:26

There are many problems with the Dyson's Sphere, even as a theoretical construct.

1) Gravity - how do you get it to spin? It has the effective mass of hundreds of thousands of planets
2) Materials - again, where are we getting all these materials to build the damn thing, considering it'll require complex materials like iron, which aren't as abundant as all that (would have to mine many remnants of supernovae)
3) Asteroids and other debris - would knock the crap out of the outside of the sphere
4) SOLAR WIND - this is the kicker, to me. Even if you built huge vents into the sphere, the force of the solar wind (and stupendous amounts of radiation being emitted) would blow the whole thing apart. Or make the surface uninhabitable. One or the other.

Still a cool idea though.

Everything you always wanted to know about Dyson Spheres but didn't really want to bother asking.

The difficult we do immediately; the impossible just takes longer.

There are a few approaches to tackling the sphere mission. I usually cruise to a far satellite and park myself between the 2 tower structures on top of the satellite, then just blast away while the towers shield me. Once one falls, then just cruise to the next one. There are some other posts that cover other styles. Best of luck

You answered one of your own questions. Asteroids are where you would get the materials. Great place for raw materials. Outside any given system should be a huge field of crap left over from the proto-planetary sphere. Small moons, dead planets. Lots of material in space.
Venus has almost no rotation at all and there is all kinds of gravity there.
Catching the solar wind is the point in the whole endeavor. It is the energy that you want to trap to power everything for free.
For any other problem, like debris impact on the outside, remember that with a large construct like this you would not want to go to the limits of your engineering abilities for the major portions. Maybe on the details yes, but the big stuff you stick to the basics. This means that you don’t consider the job until the major part of it seems easy. Humans never do things this way, we operate at the limits of our abilities all the time. By the time a species was smart enough to build one of these the major details would have been solved long before.


Ne frustra vixisse videar

Check out this site on info for the Dyson sphere....

dyson

Methinks his link doth resemble mine...

The difficult we do immediately; the impossible just takes longer.

Which kind of Dyson Sphere do you guys like better? Type I (Multiple orbital objects) Type II (Freelancer style massive sphere around it) or Type III (Galactic Spere, very grandiose, black hole in center dispose of garbage in blackhole and use energy emitted from hole for power) To me Type II is cooler but Type I makes alot more sense.

"It is said that revenge is a dish best served cold, it is very cold in space."
~Khan, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

The Type II, though any civilisation advanced enough to construct one would have no need for them.

The idea behind the type I is actually a pretty good one, and not too far off from us, technically speaking. We've already developed solar panels used in space for powering space stations, satellites, etc.. Why not create more and more solar panels and energy collection facilities to help ease the burden here on Earth? The only hitch I can think of in the initial phases (before we start creating habitats) would be energy deliverance. A globe of energy collectors around the sun (or even part of a globe) could very well solve our energy problems until we could build onto them and expand our own living space. Far-fetched, yes, but incomprehensible, no! The fact that the idea is almost 50 years old amazes me. It's the engineering of the thing(s) that will baffle scientists. In any case, it's a great theory, and if we could ever put it into practice, an energy/space surplus would cause an increase in other technological advances, basically a snowball effect. It's all good! In theory, of course...

The difficult we do immediately; the impossible just takes longer.

Energy deliverance wouldn't be the only hitch...

I can think of another BIG hitch... $$$. One thing theorists never mention is just how much their "best idea since sliced bread" is going to cost. "Oh, it will only cost about one hundred googoozillion dollars and you will need to give up your first-born son, and it would take 200,000 years to build." Heh heh..

One look at the pricetag and the "best idea since sliced bread" usually turns to dog poo..


Edited by - Chandrasekhar Limit on 18-04-2003 04:03:45