Ask A Genius 1004: A Dyson Sphere, Dyson Halo, and an Orbiting Field Solar Network Relay Beam
Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/07/06
Rick Rosner, American Comedy Writer, www.rickrosner.org
Scott Douglas Jacobsen, Independent Journalist, www.in-sightpublishing.com
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What materials would be needed to develop around a Sun to sufficiently capture its energy without the structure collapsing due to gravitational and thermonuclear forces?
Rick Rosner: Restate the question.
Jacobsen: What kind of material and structure would be required to develop around a Sun to capture the energy so that the structure neither disintegrates nor collapses due to gravitational and thermonuclear stresses?
Rosner: I’m thinking about a Dyson sphere, but I’d like to know if there’s any other way. For those unfamiliar, a Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure postulated by Freeman Dyson. He suggested that an advanced civilization would increasingly require the energy output from the star at the center of its solar system. So that people know because this is something people often misunderstand.
You do not retain all the energy you receive from the Sun. You need the energy to perform tasks, and then you need to be able to dissipate the excess energy into space, which is what we currently do. We do not retain all the energy we absorb from the Sun. We radiate a significant amount of energy out. If we retained all the energy, the Earth would overheat.
It is a property of a negentropic system, which is a system that exhibits increasing order instead of growing disorder, and it can dissipate waste heat. A Dyson sphere, therefore, is a civilization that is approximately 100,000 years old and requires energy from its Sun. This civilization would dismantle some planets in its solar system and use those materials to construct a sphere that entirely envelops the Sun at a reasonable distance, say close to the Earth-Sun radius, approximately 500 light seconds.
It is a giant sphere that contains numerous solar collectors. Dyson suggested we search for a Dyson sphere’s radiation signature because it would absorb solar radiation at solar wavelengths but radiate waste heat at waste heat wavelengths. It would be a massive dim structure, but not that dim because it would radiate considerable waste heat. He recommended looking for such structures, specifically a star that appears to be around a thousand light-seconds in diameter, resembling the size of a red giant but not radiating at the wavelength of a red giant.
So, numerous intermediary steps exist between our current state and a Dyson sphere before we can achieve a Dyson sphere. These steps include covering more of the Earth with solar panels and, perhaps 30 years from now, deploying structures into orbit to capture more solar radiation if it is cost-effective. It likely becomes cost-effective when self-assembling machinery can cover the moon with solar panels.
Eventually, the progression would move from solar collectors and relays in Earth’s orbit to solar collectors orbiting the Sun at roughly the same radius as Earth and then reflecting or somehow transmitting that energy back to Earth. Another step could be transforming the moon into a computation center for tasks that do not require immediate results because the turnaround time between the Earth and the moon is approximately three seconds. Subsequently, computation could occur in Earth’s orbit, where the collector and the massive information processor are part of the same structure.
What other intermediate ideas do you have?
Jacobsen: Additionally, if you intend to harness energy from the Sun, you should consider performing some energy-intensive processes in orbit that you prefer not to conduct on Earth.
Rosner: That sounds dangerous and perhaps inefficient. For example, one major issue with nuclear reactors is the accumulation of spent fuel rods and the challenge of storing them. I recently read two books that dramatize the consequences of disasters involving spent rods because they are just as volatile as active rods. However, placing them into space and conducting nuclear reactor operations there might be safer. Initially, it doesn’t seem safer because if they are in space, then space pirates could potentially seize them and hold Earth hostage. What are your thoughts on this?
Jacobsen: What about having something like an asteroid belt of energy collectors with a central relay on another satellite, such as a planet or moon, that then beams the energy down?
Rosner: Yes, that makes sense. Eventually, we could start capturing asteroids and sending a fleet of solar-powered robots to disassemble them and convert them into more robots and solar collectors using captured solar energy. That is a project for 80 years from now or perhaps 60 years from now. Even if we could capture the asteroid earlier than 60 years, we would cine it for rare earth metals.
We should research intermediate steps to a Dyson sphere to identify some of the steps I mentioned. For instance, could a Dyson ring be feasible, and is there any benefit? A ring around Earth or, more ambitiously, around the Sun at an Earth radius would constantly require positional adjustments because a ring does not orbit stably. It would tend to fall into whatever it is orbiting.
Before constructing a Dyson sphere, one would likely need to start with a ring. However, a sun-orbiting ring will be a project for hundreds of years.
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