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Where are you going to find the material to build a sphere around a star the size of Pluto's orbit? How are you going to arrange this material into energy harve
by Phlarp 10y ago
Where are you going to find the material to build a sphere around a star the size of Pluto's orbit? How are you going to arrange this material into energy harvesting equipment in a way that results in a net positive energy outcome?
- danieltillett 10y agoThe energy collector sphere only needs to be one atom thick and spaced just below the wavelength you want to capture. There is more than enough matter in our solar system to do this at the orbit of Pluto if you use a series of shells.
- Tloewald 10y agoAnd you do this why? You're making the assumption that capturing all of a star's energy is somehow a good thing. Something worth devoting goodness knows what effort to. And whoops another comet destroyed a ludicrously big section of it.
- Phlarp 10y agoThere will, of course, be a fleet of space faring repair robots with infinite delta-v that can zip around the solar system and patch these things up! Doesn't a pluto orbit sized energy collection unit leave a lot of energy on the table? Something about inverse squares..?
- danieltillett 10y agoNo. A. Pluto sized Dyson sphere is actually 99.5% Carnot efficient [1]. 1. https://www.tillett.info/2016/08/03/carnot-efficient-dyson-spheres-are-undetectable-by-infrared-surveys/ https://www.tillett.info/2016/08/03/carnot-efficient-dyson-s...