Dyson Swarm Similar to a Dyson Sphere, a swarm is a more fluid concept. As the name suggests, instead of having a single solid structure, you’d have a swarm of solar collectors orbiting around a start harvesting it’s energy. Though it’s still not as efficient as a Dyson Sphere, it could definitely get the job done. It could also require the dismantling of an entire planet to accomplish (a trend you’ll find with pretty much any method of harvesting a significant amount of energy from a star). Alderson Disk The Alderson Disk, named after the pioneering scientist Dan Alderson, is basically a solar system sized CD. Instead of harnessing the star’s entire power output, this contraption would only grab the energy around the star’s equatorial regions. The CD itself would be several thousand miles thick and a radius a few astronomical units long, so it is capable of housing entire civilizations across the structure, but only in the habitable zone since the disk will actually protrude on either side of the so-called Goldilocks zone. This type of structure made an appearance in Halo. Ringworld ringworldThis is very similar to the Alderson Disk, but for those who just can’t live without nature. Instead of (conceivably) living inside a metal, human-made, box, ringworld actually has a ‘natural’ environment. This structure would look more like the universe’s largest bicycle tire. Your civilization would live on the ‘inside’ sun-facing side of the tire. Here, there would be an Earth-like atmosphere and some amount of weather (though, I assume such a civilization would probably have some type of weather engineering so the really gnarly stuff doesn’t happen). “Night” would be created by solar panels that unfold during the “nightime” and cover the sun. There is a small downside; this structure might actually be impossible. But, it didn’t stop Larry Niven from inventing the idea in his novel Ringworld. Shkadov Thruster If you’re going to build a structure around a star, why not just go ahead and build a spaceship? This is the idea behind the Shkadov thruster. By using an enormous array of mirrors, it is possible for a civilization to redirect radiation being emitted from their sun back on itself, effectively pushing the star wherever you want. This is kind of like a solar sail on steroids. The traveling sun would take all of the objects bound by gravity with it as the civilization traversed the galaxy (or even the universe). That’s right, you basically turn the entire solar system into a spaceship. Some amount of caution would probably need to be taken while exploring the universe this way. Since the civilization would be carrying an entire star with it, you can’t get too close to other solar systems without (possibly) destroying the orbits of the planets and stars within. fromquarkstoquasars/five-theoretical-ways-capture-star/
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 09:56:40 +0000