Ask HN: Dyson Sphere

5 points·bhag2066··7 comments

People have proposed the idea of building a Dyson Sphere around a star. What's the proposal to transmit the energy to somewhere we can use it? How would we do this?

View on HN

The most modern idea seems to be a Dyson swarm, which is not solid and consists of solar panels and habitats orbiting at a comfortable distance. Power is relayed using microwave transmitters and receivers and conceptually a large portion would be fed into particle accelerators for the manufacture of Anti-Matter on industrial scale.

I thought you'd build a sphere or swarm at a radius from the sun that got enough solar radiation to be at a comfortable temperature. Then you'd live on the inside surface.

What about gravity? Rotate the sphere?

If you make each sail in the swarm light enough and self-adjusting, radiation from the star could keep them in place... here's a detailed writeup (not mine): https://canmom.art/physics/dyson-spheres

I see, thanks! But they didn’t explore the idea of orbiting sails. The rotational momentum would counteract gravity, and allow for heavier objects.

I don't know enough astrophysics to say anything insightful, but... makes sense to me!

Pewpew it as lasers?

That YouTube K-animation channel I can't spell (Kurdurkistan?) has an episode on it: https://youtu.be/pP44EPBMb8A?si=b8qssNFtMDAqUyE_

There's also the great engineering/factory game Dyson Sphere Program: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1366540/Dyson_Sphere_Prog...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com