FYI Calling all space nerds: Lets build a Dyson sphere

[Duke]

Let's look at this another way.

To be able to mine and harvest mercury we'll need 2 things we don't currently have. A way to protect anything on the surface, or that near the sun, from the extreme heat, and 2, a way to protect anything on the surface, or that close to the sun, from the extreme radiation.

Now, if you develop those two techs, you won't need to harvest Mercury, or create a Dyson sphere, as you will have two of the critical components needed to make a viable fusion reactor.

 

[ZRH]

over the short term, yes. But its still there. I'm not saying it will throw us out of the goldilocks zone next week, but who knows if it eventually could. The article also mentions using Venus...

gravitational attraction of sphereical objects falls off as a square of the distance, I think. Havent read astronomy in long time because is so useless. mercury is slightly larger than the moon and slightly more dense but is significantly further away. Now if they said something about blowing up jupiter, that could have notable impact on earth's motion.

 

[itburnswhenipee]

This is a weird thread coming from you, Zac. Maybe this game will help bring you back down to Earth: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/

 

[Petunia]

http://imgs.xkcd.com/blag/laser_elevator/dyson_death_ray.png

kfdnvkdfnvdkfnvdfn

 

[my little brony]

kfdnvkdfnvdkfnvdfn

is there a penis in your mouf

 

[Petunia]

is there a penis in your mouf

always!

 

[fly]

This is a weird thread coming from you, Zac. Maybe this game will help bring you back down to Earth: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/

Why is this weird? I love space shit. Please explain why you feel that a Dyson sphere is crazy? Is it simply because we can't build one yet?

 

[itburnswhenipee]

Why is this weird? I love space shit. Please explain why you feel that a Dyson sphere is crazy? Is it simply because we can't build one yet?

Yeah, pretty much. The article makes it sound like disassembling Mercury is something we can expect to do in a few decades, which is crazy-cukoo-haha-nuts. Also, I have trouble believing that any civilization technically advanced to build a Dyson sphere would actually need it by then.

 

[Sarcasmo]

It isn't crazy, it's just irresponsible. With that much space junk floating around out there, space flora and space fauna would suffer from having a polluted habitat.

 

[Valve1138]

I'm all in.

 

[Sarcasmo]

Once the Hadron collider leads to the discovery of gel-matrix based warm nutrino generators all of fly's investors will revolt. The Zephyr Hills economy will tank almost overnight as his factory closes its doors.

 

[fly]

Yeah, pretty much. The article makes it sound like disassembling Mercury is something we can expect to do in a few decades, which is crazy-cukoo-haha-nuts. Also, I have trouble believing that any civilization technically advanced to build a Dyson sphere would actually need it by then.

I don't think its completely outside the realm of possibility that we would be able to do this in 30 years. In my opinion, we just really need to get the Chinese space program off the ground and start a new space race.

And there are countless reasons that an advanced civilization might want to build one. Here are a few I thought of in thirty seconds:
1. Don't care about going anywhere
2. Want to extend the life of their own planet
3. Its cool
4. Essentially hides you from outsiders

 

[itburnswhenipee]

He can always fall back on making personal lubricant in bottles shaped like cupie dolls.

 

[itburnswhenipee]

I don't think its completely outside the realm of possibility that we would be able to do this in 30 years. In my opinion, we just really need to get the Chinese space program off the ground and start a new space race.

And there are countless reasons that an advanced civilization might want to build one. Here are a few I thought of in thirty seconds:
1. Don't care about going anywhere
2. Want to extend the life of their own planet
3. Its cool
4. Essentially hides you from outsiders

It'd take the the subjugation of all mankind by some space fixated dictator.

 

[Sarcasmo]

4. Essentially hides you from outsiders

"Sir, that star has approximately 750,000 metal objects with energy signatures orbiting it."
"It's probably nothing. Let's move on to the next system."

 

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Not sure what removing mercury from the solar system would do, its small and likely exudes little gravitational influence on our mudball, but think, for a second, of the logistics involved in mining materials, refining them into a usable form, then transporting this material to a jobsite, then fabricating a product with it.

To even be able to set up a mining operation on mercury, wed have to be able to reliably get there first, and bring LOTS of equipment along, as well as supplies and shelter for the mining crews(unless your using robot labor)
Then, set up a large scale refining facility to turn these rocks into usable material. Do this on-planet? In orbit? Large sheets of unobtanium dont extrude themselves, you know.

I could go on and on, but really, our first step would be to create some form of reliable inter-planetary transportation.

 

[Sarcasmo]

I suggest some kind of rope ladder, possibly made of recycled tires and water bottles. Astronauts could then simply climb their way to Mercury on the cheap.

 

[fly]

"Sir, that star has approximately 750,000 metal objects with energy signatures orbiting it."
"It's probably nothing. Let's move on to the next system."

I'm talking about a true Dyson sphere...

 

[fly]

Not sure what removing mercury from the solar system would do, its small and likely exudes little gravitational influence on our mudball, but think, for a second, of the logistics involved in mining materials, refining them into a usable form, then transporting this material to a jobsite, then fabricating a product with it.

To even be able to set up a mining operation on mercury, wed have to be able to reliably get there first, and bring LOTS of equipment along, as well as supplies and shelter for the mining crews(unless your using robot labor)
Then, set up a large scale refining facility to turn these rocks into usable material. Do this on-planet? In orbit? Large sheets of unobtanium dont extrude themselves, you know.

I could go on and on, but really, our first step would be to create some form of reliable inter-planetary transportation.

I'm pretty sure that we have a satellite orbiting Mercury right now. If not, then there is one on the way. So we already have a reliable way to get there. And I sincerely doubt that we'd have humans do it, as you suggest, it would create a ton of unnecessary overhead.

Solar powered robots would work pretty well I'd think.

 

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

So we already have a reliable way to get there.

We do? What do we have that will haul tons of cargo and equipment to another planet?

And youd have to have some sort of human oversight , even if minimal.