Dyson spheres could exist – but there's a catch

livescience.com

12 points·ricecat··5 comments

I have another simple catch, how the energy harvested by a Dyson Sphère is supposed to be transported to the planet where people live ? I suppose a direct cable is out of question, and I don't think wireless eletricity is possible, so what does remain ? Batteries charged and after transported from the Dyson Sphere to the planet, and when empty, returned to the Dyson Sphere ?

Or maybe I'm missing something.

Even assuming you could build one, the artificial gravity created by the rotation would only exist around the equator, diminishing to nothing at the poles. So only a natrow band would keep people and their stuff from floatin ofr into the bubble eventually falling into the sun.

How do Dyson sphere proponents solve this?

The shell is obviously very-very thick, to stand meteor hits. So it is already gravity generator.

To achieve earth normal, maybe only some hundred kilometers will suffice, because it is made of diamond-hard super-dense material.

Unlike Ringworld the Dyson Sphere cannot withstand any meteor punctures.

Entering is not so bad, because it only creates a mountain. But then you either have to let it exit or destroy it.

Exit would create a bowl with drain hole and the atmosphere will escape killing all innocent dysonians.

And destroying the meteor will cause excess of energy and we have no known method to vent it out.

I really liked the Ringworld, it always gave me a delicious shiver, and it was just on the edge of preposterousness but you could see how the physics could work. Not so much with a sphere.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com