Bubbles_glow

≡ The Advantages of Space ≡

 
Corner_fold
  • Somewhere Else on the Internet
  • You Might Be Interested to Know
  • On the Other Hand
  • Illustration
Space_catalog
The Advantages of Space
 
Flowchart_grey_24

The Advantages of Space

Dr. Freeman Dyson
Department of Physics
Princeton University
Princeton, New Jersey 08540


Dear Dr. Dyson,

About a week ago I read Kenneth Brower's biography of you and your son and found myself highly interested in your ideas. I doubt that Dyson Spheres will be constructed in my lifetime by creatures in this biosphere, but perhaps some of us could set up something on asteroids or comets in a couple of decades . . .

As I see it, there are currently three possible environments for settlement: the sea, Antarctica, and Space, in ascending order of preference. Building ocean settlements strikes me as risky because we would probably be close enough to land to be controlled by various overwater interests. We're still at the bottom of a gravity well, down which fall canisters of radioactive wastes, industrial byproducts and the effluvium of toilets. It seems unfortunate to have to trust in other people to keep our environment uncontaminated what that trust has been so far without ground (dry or otherwise). Antarctica seems an order of magnitude better. It's remote; we could get out of sight of military bases pretty quickly and settle down with penguins or springtails. We certainly wouldn't have a gravity well problem on one of the 16,000 foot mountains. Antarctica would be a perfect place to set up a space launch site without strings. (And if we can fuel up with ice . . .) There's even air around to play with; it would be a good jumping-off place. On the other hand, if we didn't jump off within a century or so we'd probably be jumped on by nations looking for new material to exploit. Antarctica would also be rather dull compared to space. I won't be so condescending as to tell you what I think the advantages of space are; you've probably thought of it more than I have.

So . . .

Are we working on another version of Orion? Do you have any new plans? (Brower sort of left all that hanging.) What about finances, or the bone-calcium problem? Have you planned out any directions for the society up there, or would you leave it to evolve by itself?

You see, Dr. Dyson, I'd really like to come along. And I have a couple of friends who might be interested. None of us are brilliant physics or engineering minds (I'm eighteen, puttering with differential equations and may stop there as far as math is concerned), but I wouldn't say we're worthless either. What sort of preparation would you suggest; how can we help make the whole thing happen?


Springtail Penguins Freeman_dyson Orion_blastoff2 Dysnsphr_square Neemo9_aquarius
 
Dysnsphr_square

Dyson Sphere FAQ
by Anders Sandberg

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. It is an artificial sphere the size of an planetary orbit. The sphere would consist of a shell of solar collectors or habitats around the star, so that all (or at least a significant amount) energy will hit a receiving surface where it can be used. This would create a huge living space and gather enormous amounts of energy.

A Dyson sphere in the solar system, with a radius of one AU would have a surface area of at least 2.72e17 km^2, around 600 million times the surface area of the Earth. The sun has a energy output of around 4e26 W, of which most would be available to do useful work.

The original proposal simply assumed there would be enough solar collectors around the star to absorb the starlight, not that they would form a continuous shell. Rather, the shell would consist of independently orbiting structures, around a million kilometres thick and containing more than 1e5 objects. But various science fiction authors seem to have misinterpreted the concept to mean a solid shell enclosing the star, usually having an inhabitable surface on the inside, and this idea was so compelling that it has been the main use of the term in science fiction.