by What if we become so technologically evolved that our energy demand skyrockets? If we survive long enough on this planet without any potential conflicts, we might evolve technologically to even collect the energy from the sun and use it on Earth, not only some of it, all of it. There won't be any energy depletion and we could even try to explore other planets outside our solar system once this structure is deployed. But this is a megastructure that is far more complex than the Space Elevator or the Skyhooks and so it is impossible to build with our current technology. So what is Dyson Sphere and why would we need one in the future?
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| Dyson Sphere structure around a Star |
What is a Dyson Sphere?
Dyson Sphere is a mega-structure that is used to capture the power of the star by surrounding the star with a large number of Solar arrays. Dyson Sphere could potentially solve all of the energy problems on our planet as once it is constructed, we will have virtually infinite power to run our planet. This idea will not be plausible with our current technology, it is one for the future. If humanity survives long enough, this might just be our plan to start interstellar travel and getting out of this galaxy. Only a few percent of the sun's energy emissions reach our planet and even with that power, we could meet the energy demands of our planet if only 2 percent of our planet's surface is covered with solar arrays. Imagine if we collect all the energy emitted by the sun or at least most of the energy emissions of the sun, it will our dream of colonizing other planets and interstellar travel possible.
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| Extracting Unlimited Energy from the Sun |
The idea of the Dyson sphere came from the physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson, who theorized this technology which could fulfil our energy demands on our planet. As innovations get better and better, we would get technologically evolved and at that time, we would be needing an enormous amount of energy to keep our human presence throughout our solar system. His concept was to construct a system of solar arrays around the sun and the energy could be transported to the Earth. It is just an idea and implementing this idea might not happen in this century or not at all. We even don't know how to construct one, but we have the idea to collect the solar radiation and storing this colossal energy. Is the Dyson sphere really necessary?
What is the need for Dyson Sphere?
Constructing a Dyson Sphere is not an easy task, but the outcome of building this mega-structure could be extraordinary. This will fulfil the energy needs of the Earth and there will be no need for an energy budget. This capital generated from this structure alone is enough to fund our future space missions and even the interstellar might become possible. But we can't forget that this is a futuristic science fiction because we don't have the materials or the capital to construct this enormous structure around the sun. Currently building the Dyson sphere is way out of our engineering capacity. But we might need to build this structure in the future to meet our energy demands.
As the population of keep on increasing, we might start to consume a colossal amount of energy. Our energy needs would likely grow exponentially as technology evolves. We might try to find ways to find our energy other than getting it from our planet. We might have to exploit other planets to satisfy our energy needs, but we have a huge power source in the form of the sun. If we try and built the solar arrays around the sun, we could potentially collect all the solar radiation from the sun and concentrate it towards a collecting station on Earth. Harnessing the energy from the entire star makes us a Type II civilization on the Kardashev Scale. So how would we construct one?
How to build a Dyson Sphere?
Harvesting the energy of a star sounds like a really tough job, so can we do this if we have the technology to do this mega-structure encompassing the sun. Firstly the super-lightweight solar panels with low thickness, which requires no maintenance for a very long period of time (centuries) has to be deployed around the sun. These mirrors which have to be at least the size of 1 square kilometre would have to concentrate the solar radiation to a particular area possibly on Earth. But the problem is the sun is huge compared to the size of the Earth and so we have to won't find enough resources to build and deploy these mirrors surrounding the sun.
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| Disassembling the Mercury |
The resources required to build this massive structure could be taken from other planets, possibly the mercury which is mineral-rich and it is also the nearest planet to the sun. But the entire planet has to be taken out to get the adequate amount of materials required for construction. A lot of autonomous robots has to be deployed on the Mercury and the minerals will be strip-mined. The minerals could be used to create the solar mirrors and launched into space. Transporting the minerals from the mercury to the sun would be easier because of its low escape velocity. So we could disassemble the entire of mercury to fulfil our arduous dream of the Dyson Sphere. We have it all figured out, well at least theoretically.
