Not sure where else to post this since /sci/ has faggots for mods (big surprise) and /tv/ wouldn’t elicit very sophisticated responses.
For the uninitiated: “Dyson Swarm” (less accurately: Dyson Sphere), refers to a megastructure in space that could harness all of a star’s energy. In most concepts it does so by surrounding a star with a dense cloud of solar collectors (think satellites with large, thin photovoltaic surfaces that can also transfer the collected energy, e.g. via laser). They could be surrounding the Sun at, for instance, the range of Earth’s orbit and, once numerous enough, receive every last photon sent out by the Sun.
Concerning its feasibility: While the construction of a full Dyson Swarm constitutes a mindbogglingly huge project, it isn’t particularly ambitious in terms of the technolo/g/y needed. Mankind could basically start building one today. If we can also set up largely automated factories of these satellites in space (and thus save on getting matter out of a planet’s gravity well) then the process will experience a positive feedback loop since, as more and more satellites go online, more and more energy is available to spend on the construction of yet more satellites. So even without any additional technological breakthroughs the entire “structure” could be completed in but a couple centuries. We’ve already built structures on Earth that took about that long to finish.
Now why would we want to do build one? ’Cuz having that much energy available to us means we can basically do whatever we want, even on a galactic scale. People these days are worried a lot about global warming and overpopulation. In concert with O'Neill Cylinders (self-sufficient cylindrical space habitats for 500k+ people) a Dyson Swarm would allow our solar system to easily support population numbers equivalent to colonizing ALL Earth-like planets in the ENTIRE galaxy with TEN billion people each, i.e. several QUINTILLION people.
It took hundreds of people and years in man hours to put together an underwhelming photo of a black hole. You really think humans could achieve this currently?
Joshua Hughes
it's just interconnected solar panels, we already have the tech to start building it unlike your retarded example. the issue will be how to transfer energy from them to where we live and micrometeroids punching holes in everything.
Jose Thomas
Humans haven't even sent anybody to the moon yet. Let's not get too ambitious here big guy.
Anthony Brooks
This.
I mean ... since we are talking about a swarm of objects rather than a rigid spheroid they could just move out of the way. We’re already breddy good at spotting asteroids of all sizes
See . As I said, the concept itself is grand in scale but fairly lowtech. Regarding your objection, that is an unrelated endeavor. Saying X is difficult so we can't do Y (even though Y is easier) makes no sense.
W E W
Blake Hall
>the issue will be how to transfer energy from them to where we live and micrometeroids punching holes in everything I would imagine the bigger issue would be sourcing and moving billions of tonnes of build material, and stationkeeping, but that's just me.
Hudson Morgan
>If we can also set up largely automated factories of these satellites in space (and thus save on getting matter out of a planet’s gravity well) Does the factory create the raw materials out of thin air? In fact, since the production process will be most likely less than 100% efficient with respect to materials, you'll end up having to get more mass to escape.
Brandon Martinez
Kessler syndrome, but for real.
Bentley Garcia
Earth is an old Dyson sphere, what we call dirt is just the accumulation of hundreds of thousands of millions of years of space dust. Volcanic eruptions are venting from solar flares but since no cleaned the surface it has to go through all the space dust, melts it and creates lava and all the rest.
Venus is one as well and Mars was one but it’s star is mostly a dead dwarf at this point.
>they could just move out of the way >We’re already breddy good at spotting asteroids of all sizes look up what a micrometeorite is. we cant detect them (yet).
no, we're already launching shit into space, it's just a matter scaling it up, even if it's inefficient, it's possible
