User:Lsparrish/sandbox
Advocacy of Dyson Spheres in the Near Future
In 2012, Dvorsky covered the concept of humanity building a Dyson Sphere as a practical long term plan, which would result in solving humanity's resource needs including power and living space.[1]
He referenced a talk by Stuart Armstrong (which focused on the big picture implications for the Fermi Paradox), but also made the claim that we could do this in the near term.
The steps referred to in the title are:
- Get energy
- Mine Mercury
- Get materials into orbit
- Make solar collectors
- Extract energy
Dvorsky goes on to describe Armstrong's scheme, which he describes as brilliant, to disassemble Mercury using solar power and self replicating robots.
Knapp Reaction
One of the first reactions against the concept included Alex Knapp, a Forbes blogger, and Phil Plait, whom he consulted by email. Knapp represents Phil Plait as demonstrating "in no uncertain terms" that the project doesn’t make sense.
Dismantling Mercury, just to start, will take 2 x 10^30 Joules, or an amount of energy 100 billion times the US annual energy consumption ... [Dvorsky] kinda glosses over that point. And how long until his solar collectors gather that much energy back, and we’re in the black?
— Phil Plait, in an email cited in [2]
At one AU – which is the distance of the orbit of the Earth, the Sun emits 1.4 x 10^3 J/sec per square meter. That’s 1.4 x 10^9 J/sec per square kilometer. At one-third efficiency, that’s 4.67 x 10^8 J/sec for the entire Dyson sphere. That sounds like a lot, right? But here’s the thing – if you work it out, it will take 4.28 x 10^28 seconds for the solar collectors to obtain the energy needed to dismantle Mercury.
| Solar output (J/s) | GBE of Mercury (J) | Solar output (J/s) | GBE of Mercury (J) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knapp/Plait | Actual | ||
| 2x1030 | 3.846 x 1026 | 1.8x1030 |
- ^ Dvorsky, George (2012-03-20). "How to build a Dyson sphere in five (relatively) easy steps". Retrieved June 2015.
Let's build a Dyson sphere! And why wouldn't we want to? By enveloping the sun with a massive array of solar panels, humanity would graduate to a Type 2 Kardashev civilization capable of utilizing nearly 100% of the sun's energy output. A Dyson sphere would provide us with more energy than we would ever know what to do with while dramatically increasing our living space. Given that our resources here on Earth are starting to dwindle, and combined with the problem of increasing demand for more energy and living space, this would seem to a good long-term plan for our species.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|access-date=(help) - ^ Alex Knapp Destroying Mercury To Build A Dyson Sphere Is A Bad Idea
Content Disclaimer
Informasi ini disarikan dari Wikipedia dan disajikan kembali untuk tujuan edukasi. Konten tersedia di bawah lisensi CC BY-SA 3.0. Kami tidak bertanggung jawab atas ketidakakuratan data yang bersumber dari kontribusi publik tersebut.
- The information displayed on this website is sourced in part or in whole from Wikipedia and has been adapted for the purpose of restating it. We strive to provide accurate and relevant information, however:
- There is no guarantee of absolute accuracy. Wikipedia is an open, collaborative project that can be edited by anyone, so information is subject to change.
- It is not intended to constitute professional advice. The content displayed is for informational and educational purposes only. For important decisions (e.g., medical, legal, or financial), please consult a professional.
- Content copyright. Wikipedia is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (CC BY-SA). This means that content may be reused with appropriate attribution and shared under a similar license.
- Responsible use. Any risk arising from the use of information from this website is entirely the responsibility of the user.