Idea Dyson sphere

[docabn]

As far as gravity or the coriolis effect, the angles near the equator would be negligible probably for several thaousand miles North and south. So things would work there. As for the constant heat I would steel Mr. Nivens idea and have an innershell that has slices missing so that it blocks the sunlight and creates an artificial night and allows for cooling . On top of that the innershell could be made to specifically absorb heat and light to convert it into storable energy of course this would lead to the storage of vast amounts of energy which was Dyson's idea behind the dyson sphere to begin with.

Just remember how big of an object you are talking about. You could theoreticly build this thing then still have room for several planets to orbit the star inside the sphere as well.

 

[lowerlowerhk]

It's a bit off topic, but I believe the view of a Dyson sphere on its inner surface would be the same as on earth. After travelling long distance in its air-filled cavity, light reflected form the hemisphere above you will be mostly scattered away.

 

[RisingFury]

Well, if we ever construct one, we better leave a door somewhere......

 

[Eagle]

You lose a lot of effective area if you use orbiting satellites, otherwise there won't be enough room for them to cross orbits without crashing, or lose mass efficiency if you use nested orbital shells as closer satellites will periodically shade further ones.

Regarding the Orbiter implementation, millions of satellites is trivial to do, just tedious and processor killing. Regarding an Earth orbit shell instead of a solid single vessel implementation we could try several docked plates. Of course I'm not sure how Orbiter would handle a system of several docked craft that is 2 AU in diameter.

 

[Artlav]

millions of satellites is trivial to do, just tedious and processor killing.

Unfortunately, a couple thousand is the upper practical limit.

 

[Hielor]

It's a bit off topic, but I believe the view of a Dyson sphere on its inner surface would be the same as on earth. After travelling long distance in its air-filled cavity, light reflected form the hemisphere above you will be mostly scattered away.

No, it would look vastly different.

On Earth, when a ship sails away from you, it drops "behind" the horizon. In a Dyson Sphere, there is no horizon for it to drop behind.

 

[Andy44]

Woe to the poor fool who doesn't know how his world was built and tries to drill for water...

 

[Hielor]

Woe to the poor fool who doesn't know how his world was built and tries to drill for water...

Well, considering that you need handwavium in the first place to build the thing, presumably the low-tech society that lost the technology won't be able to penetrate the handwavium...

 

[tgep]

I suppose you could ask the Ringworld engineers for help but I think thery're too tired to do it again..... Larry Niven does have a public site if you're really intrested in trying to do this in Orbiter..... and he had a friend at JPL run the numbers for him to make his books accurate. Who knows, he may even get a kick out of seeing a version of his Ringworld or something similar actually simulated for others to play with and on.

 

[HopDavid]

Wouldn't a Dyson sphere be made out of millions of satellites, not a solid shell?

If I'm not mistaken that's what Dyson originally proposed. A solid sphere would tend to collapse at the poles.

Here is a possible Dyson swarm:
http://burtleburtle.net/bob/scifi/dyson.html
Although this swarm is more of a torus than a sphere. It takes awhile for the sim to evolve but it's worth the wait. I'd recommend loading the page and then going to the frig to make a sandwich and pour yourself a beverage.

 

[Keatah]

http://www.celestialmatters.org/users/rthorvald/ringworld/

---------- Post added at 04:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:04 AM ----------

Ohh yeh babycakes!! Doin' loops around fog and multi-c approaches. Barrell rolls are a sight to behold.

It's great to see the first sci-fi novel you (me) read come alive !!

 

[T.Neo]

On Earth, when a ship sails away from you, it drops "behind" the horizon. In a Dyson Sphere, there is no horizon for it to drop behind.

I suppose it'd either be lost in the haze at some point, or become to small to see.

 

[Hielor]

I suppose it'd either be lost in the haze at some point, or become to small to see.

It will appear to go "up" and will eventually become too small to distinguish.

Assuming you had "night squares" like the Ringworld to shade yourself from the sun, you would be able to see that you were inside a sphere at night, the same way we can see stars now.

 

[Salamander]

A solid sphere would tend to collapse at the poles.

dyson proposed a complex system of counter-rotating masses, liquids in pipes if memory serves, to overcome both centrifugal forces at the equator and gravity at the poles.

 

[Arthur Dent]

Ringworld in Orbiter would be cool. But probably impossible (or at least very hard) to construct.

 

[Keatah]

bigwheel

I suppose the next best thing in orbiter (to ringworld) would be the big wheel station. It has terrain inside like ringworld. But it is only 10's of miles wid, not a million.

 

[T.Neo]

It will appear to go "up" and will eventually become too small to distinguish.

Don't get me wrong, I understand concave horizon physics (having attempted to model stanford torus interiors etc), remember that we're talking about a structure AU in diameter.

The apparent "flatness" of the object will be far more then on Earth due to the larger size... any ship would move "up" a negligible amount before disappearing in the haze.

Of course, the atmosphere would probably only be a thin shell on the interior of the sphere- in which case, areas a certain distance around the sphere would come into view again.

In effect, it's be like looking at a planet from space, in reverse.

 

[Hielor]

Don't get me wrong, I understand concave horizon physics (having attempted to model stanford torus interiors etc), remember that we're talking about a structure AU in diameter.

The apparent "flatness" of the object will be far more then on Earth due to the larger size... any ship would move "up" a negligible amount before disappearing in the haze.

Of course, the atmosphere would probably only be a thin shell on the interior of the sphere- in which case, areas a certain distance around the sphere would come into view again.

In effect, it's be like looking at a planet from space, in reverse.

Sure, on an extremely hazy day maybe....

 

[T.Neo]

Sure, on an extremely hazy day maybe....

Plain air (given enough of it) obscures objects at a distance very well. Add to that the extremely large size of a Dyson sphere.

The apparent curvature would be minimal.