The Dyson sphere (or Dyson shell) was originally proposed in 1959
by the astronomer Freeman Dyson in “Search for Artificial Stellar
Sources of Infrared Radiation” in Science as a way for an
advanced civilisation to utilise all of the energy radiated by their
sun. (Link)
Dyson spheres have always fascinated me. I read Larry Niven’s Ringworld where the Dyson Sphere’s little cousin, a Ringworld, is discussed at great length. You can see a rendering over at Jeff Russell’s Starship Dimensions page. Many times I have bookmarked various links to FAQs, but I’ve never spent the time to read them. Until now.
The FAQ is fascinating. It’s written by Anders Sandberg with contributions by a number of other folks familiar with physics, chemistry, and geology. The FAQ goes on to discuss, “What if a Dyson sphere were real?” What would be it’s characteristics? What would it be made of? What would it look like from the inside/outside?
There are two types, Type I and Type II. Type I is a cheat. You simply have zillions of mini satellites (called Statites) arranged in a spherical shell around a star. The Type II is more interesting as it consists of a rigid shell that is pretty darned complicated to construct.
Toward the end of the FAQ I read something that made me laugh and so I fired up my blogging tool. It was a note within the question, “Can a Dyson sphere be built using realistic technology?” Within the answer is this gem:
A rigid dyson shell would require superstrong materials, and its
construction is complicated since half a shell is unstable. One could
conceive of some dramatic capping process, where a number of
previously freely orbiting structural components at the same time
moved inwards to lock together into a shell (for example twenty
spherical triangles). This would require tremendous precision, but
since supertechnology is already assumed for building a rigid shell,
it seems almost trivial. As somebody put it, if you can build a dyson
shell you don’t need it.
Why I find this so fascinating is likely due to the late hour and the caffeine running through my system.