tank grrl

Indeed... but the sheer cost of slapping something on top of a mountain and maintaining it would be mighty pricey. I think wind power shies away from areas prone to snow and ice because it gums up the works.
 
When you ponder power consider this...
other than perhaps geo-thermal it all
comes from the Sun. Even nuclear
fuel was formed within a star!

The only salavtion is fusion.
 
Winky said:
When you ponder power consider this...
other than perhaps geo-thermal it all
comes from the Sun. Even nuclear
fuel was formed within a star!

The only salavtion is fusion.
Click to expand...

Dyson sphere, anyone?
 
I knew the term but was unsure of exactly what a Dyson Sphere was. Googled it. After updating my memory banks I also found out that we may havve to wait for another planet to fail before "building" one.

A Dyson sphere in the solar system, with a radius of one AU would have a surface area of at least 2.72e17 km^2, around 600 million times the surface area of the Earth. The sun has a energy output of around 4e26 W, of which most would be available to do useful work.
Click to expand...
 
Gonz said:
I knew the term but was unsure of exactly what a Dyson Sphere was. Googled it. After updating my memory banks I also found out that we may havve to wait for another planet to fail before "building" one.
Click to expand...

Not really. Don't forget all the junk we've got floating around between Mars and Jupiter...and the ort clouds...and the gas giants...;)
 
Gato_Solo said:
Dyson sphere, anyone?
Click to expand...

Familiar with the poor man's Dyson Sphere aka Ringworld ? A book by Larry Niven. Much less resource intensive and more cost effective than a Dyson Sphere. I'd say there's more than enough junk in the solar system to build either/or. :nerd: It's that pesky cheap transmutation process that's gotta be overcome.
 
chcr said:
Familiar with the poor man's Dyson Sphere aka Ringworld ? A book by Larry Niven. Much less resource intensive and more cost effective than a Dyson Sphere. I'd say there's more than enough junk in the solar system to build either/or. :nerd: It's that pesky cheap transmutation process that's gotta be overcome.
Click to expand...

True, but a ringworld requires attitude jets. ;) Ringworld also features prominently in Halo...I wonder what Microsoft is paying in royalties for that idea...
 
Gato_Solo said:
True, but a ringworld requires attitude jets. ;) Ringworld also features prominently in Halo...I wonder what Microsoft is paying in royalties for that idea...
Click to expand...
With all the other irons he has in the fire, it's probably a drop in the bucket. :D
I hear there's going to be a movie. I wonder who will play Louis Wu. I have always felt that Lucifer's Hammer would make a great mini-series.

A Dyson Sphere would also require some sort of attitude control, but one can imagine that the required gravity generators (Ringworld doesn't need those) would serve double duty there. I always thought the most fascinating part of Dyson's hypothesis was that he originally came up with the idea to explain why we don't find evidence of super-advanced extraterrestrials.
 
There has to be a mini ringworld concept that can be built with the materials we can find here and the moon. Something thats very good at the whole solar collection and redirection thing.

The trouble I have with a full bore ringworld is the 100,000x increase in collisions with space trash and comets.

I dare say we would have to chill out and cooperate as a global population to make such a thing viable.
 
unclehobart said:
There has to be a mini ringworld concept that can be built with the materials we can find here and the moon. Something thats very good at the whole solar collection and redirection thing.

The trouble I have with a full bore ringworld is the 100,000x increase in collisions with space trash and comets.

I dare say we would have to chill out and cooperate as a global population to make such a thing viable.
Click to expand...

Wel, of course you have to sweep out the local area out to beyond the Oort Cloud. Of course, in the book, just such a collision occured in the past. These collisions would be equally dangerous (if not more so) to a Dyson Sphere, BTW.

I think it's implied (though never stated) that the cooperation you mention was obtained by force. I think that's the only way it could happen, at least here. :nerd:

Oh, and several "mini-ringworld" ideas have been put forth including one by Freeman Dyson.
 
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