Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Sources
Dyson Sphere
– One hundred quintillion times more powerful than our most efficient reactor.
#Dyson Spheres around White Dwarfs, 2015
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1503.04376.pdf
– It shines with the energy of a trillion nuclear bombs per second.
#Astronomer David Reneke asks: Are you ready to become sun smart?, 2016
https://www.macleayargus.com.au/story/3985926/a-powerful-ball-of-energy-that-dominates-the-sky/
– Build the largest, most ambitious structure in the universe. The Dyson sphere.
#Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation , 1960
http://www.islandone.org/LEOBiblio/SETI1.HTM
#Dyson sphere, 2018
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere
#The Dyson Sphere, 2016
http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2016/ph240/wee1/
#Dyson Spheres around White Dwarfs, 2015
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1503.04376.pdf
– A large rigid body like that would be vulnerable to impacts, possibly shattering.
#How to build a Dyson sphere in five (relatively) easy steps, 2012
http://www.sentientdevelopments.com/2012/03/how-to-build-dyson-sphere-in-five.html
– It would be liable to drift and could crash straight into the sun.
#How to build a Dyson sphere in five (relatively) easy steps, 2012
http://www.sentientdevelopments.com/2012/03/how-to-build-dyson-sphere-in-five.html
– A more viable design for a Dyson sphere might be a Dyson swarm.
#Eternity in six hours: intergalactic spreading of intelligent life and sharpening the Fermi paradox, 2012
http://aleph.se/papers/Spamming%20the%20universe.pdf
#How to Build a Dyson Swarm, 2017
https://www.space.com/38031-how-to-build-a-dyson-swarm.html
#The Dyson Sphere, 2016
http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2016/ph240/wee1/
#How to build a Dyson sphere in five (relatively) easy steps, 2012
http://www.sentientdevelopments.com/2012/03/how-to-build-dyson-sphere-in-five.html
– If each satellite is a square kilometer, we’d need around thirty quadrillion.
#How to build a Dyson sphere in five (relatively) easy steps, 2012
http://www.sentientdevelopments.com/2012/03/how-to-build-dyson-sphere-in-five.html
# M Caplan personal communication, 2018
https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=(4*pi*(0.36+au)%5E2)+%2F+(1+km)%5E2
– If they are built as lightly, we need about one hundred quintillion tons of material.
#M. Caplan personal communication, 2018
https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=one+hundred+quintillion+tonnes+%2F+(4*pi*+(0.36+au)%5E2)
– We’ll have to largely disassemble a whole planet. Mercury is the best candidate.
#How to Build a Dyson Swarm, 2017
https://www.space.com/38031-how-to-build-a-dyson-swarm.html
#How to build a Dyson sphere in five (relatively) easy steps, 2012
http://www.sentientdevelopments.com/2012/03/how-to-build-dyson-sphere-in-five.html
#Eternity in six hours: intergalactic spreading of intelligent life and sharpening the Fermi paradox, 2012
http://aleph.se/papers/Spamming%20the%20universe.pdf
– Mercury has no atmosphere and only about a third of the surface gravity of earth.
#Mercury (planet), 2018
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(planet)
– Conventional solar panels are far too intricate and short lived.
#Solar panels on spacecraft, 2018
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_panels_on_spacecraft#cite_note-13
#The Practicality of Space-Based Solar Power, 2018
http://www.towerfast.com/press/post/the-practicality-of-space-based-solar-panels
– They are most likely going to be enormous mirrors, which refocus sunlight.
#How to Build a Dyson Swarm, 2017
https://www.space.com/38031-how-to-build-a-dyson-swarm.html
– They must be incredibly light, made of little more than polished metal foil.
#Eternity in six hours: intergalactic spreading of intelligent life and sharpening the Fermi paradox, 2012
http://aleph.se/papers/Spamming%20the%20universe.pdf
– We could only launch as much mass as Mt. Everest into space.
# M. Caplan personal communication, 2018
– So we'd want to automate as much as possible.
#How to Build a Dyson Swarm, 2017
https://www.space.com/38031-how-to-build-a-dyson-swarm.html
– The solar collectors are going to give us the energy we need.
#Eternity in six hours: intergalactic spreading of intelligent life and sharpening the Fermi paradox, 2012
http://aleph.se/papers/Spamming%20the%20universe.pdf
– Instead, we'll want to use a sort of railgun.
#Railgun, 2018
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railgun
#Eternity in six hours: intergalactic spreading of intelligent life and sharpening the Fermi paradox, 2012
http://aleph.se/papers/Spamming%20the%20universe.pdf
– From this point, we can take advantage of exponential growth.
#Exponential growth, 2018
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exponential_growth
#Eternity in six hours: intergalactic spreading of intelligent life and sharpening the Fermi paradox, 2012
http://aleph.se/papers/Spamming%20the%20universe.pdf
– Within just about 60 doubling times, the sun would be surrounded by solar panels.
#M Caplan personal communication, 2018
https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=(1+km)%5E2+*+2%5E56+%2F+(4*pi*(mercury+orbital+radius)%5E2)
– If the solar collectors take a month to build, we could be done in a decade.
#M Caplan personal communication, 2018
https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=60+*+1+month+in+years
– There are probably Dyson spheres already out there in the milky way.
#Optical SETI observations of the anomalous star KIC 8462852, 2016
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8205/825/1/L5/meta
#On the search for artificial Dyson-like structures around pulsars, 2016