Dyson Spheres - Will Humanity Relocate?

[Cephalon]

Hello, my name is Denver. I'm an avid fan of science and technology.

Today's post will be about Dyson Spheres. For those who have never heard of a Dyson Sphere, it is a formation of artificial habitats either orbiting or spinning around and in close proximity to a star. There are multiple designs for Dyson Spheres, so it is advised that you do a tad bit of research on Google.

A Dyson Sphere could theoretically hold billions and billions of people if fully constructed. There would no longer be any concerns for energy, since you're right next to a star, and you can easily and efficiently install solar panels on your Dyson Sphere.

Do you think humans will ever build a Dyson Sphere in the future? Feel free to post your opinions or impressions in the comment section below.

[truongk20]

@cephalon I can't say I'm too hopeful that we will ever create one. Even with a super advanced civilization several millennia ahead of us, the sheer scale of such an undertaking would be absolutely insane. The sphere's radius would have to be large enough such that the sphere is not destroyed by the concentrated energy, and any sphere that fits that criteria would require about 62 metric asstons of raw materials. Then there is the issue of material strength; it seems almost inconceivable that any material could be developed with the requisite tensile strength. Ultimately, it just sees more practical for humanity to develop a somewhat smaller source of energy. What that source is I don't think we yet have the knowledge to properly conjecture upon.

[Cephalon]

@truongk20 I agree, it would be a huge project, one that we may never finish considering modern problems like resource depletion, national competition, religious terrorism, and countless other things. The big issue isn't building the structure itself, it's lasting long enough to complete the project.

Also, you don't necessarily have to completely surround the star. You don't even have to build a giant platform. There are multiple ways to do it, two of which I will share.

1.) Build a bunch of small space stations, not very large, just numerous, and throw them into orbit around the star. You can always add to the number of stations, the big issue is making sure they don't collide. Even so, it shouldn't happen very often.

2.) Build a massive ring around the star, similar to the ring around Saturn, except one large object. It should be relatively thin, since you can always build more, and it can house a TON of people. You can also approach this design with a ladder-like structure, where the rungs of the ladder are constantly rotating, providing artificial gravity. This also cuts back on the needed materials, since there's a sizeable gap between each rung.

Both of these methods don't require insanely strong materials, more so the former. You could always pull resources from other planets, or somehow fuse large amounts of common atoms to make things like iron, similar to how a star does. Sadly, this is not possible yet, but we're getting pretty close to starting nuclear fusion.

[[[global:former-user]]]

There's a big chance that we'll destroy ourselves before we even get close to becoming interstellar, so maybe we'll never be advanced enough to become a third level species, we might never even become a second level species