I Is the existence of a Dyson Sphere impossible?

Click For Summary
A monolithic Dyson Sphere is deemed impossible with current materials due to structural limitations, but theoretical concepts like a Dyson Balloon could work by utilizing solar radiation pressure. This balloon would require active control to maintain its position around a star, effectively making it a leaky Dyson Sphere. A Dyson Swarm, composed of multiple smaller structures, may be a more feasible option for harnessing stellar energy. Such designs could potentially maximize energy capture while reducing detectability to other civilizations. Overall, while a monolithic Dyson Sphere is impractical, alternative concepts offer intriguing possibilities for energy collection.
HystereeSis
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
Specifically a monolithic Dyson Sphere; also, how would a Dyson Swarm work / be a better option?
 
Astronomy news on Phys.org
HystereeSis said:
Is the existence of a Dyson Sphere impossible?
Not specifically, no.
HystereeSis said:
also, how would a Dyson Swarm work / be a better option?
Better option for what?

Is this a science fiction question?
 
  • Like
Likes Bystander and jim mcnamara
A monolithic Dyson sphere without moving parts wouldn't be possible with materials we know, but in principle you can stabilize it with fast-moving (faster than orbital velocity) components.
 
Perhaps one could make a Dyson Balloon inflated by solar radiation pressure around a star but there would have to be some sort of active control to keep the balloon centered around the star by manipulating the surface transmission/reflection coefficients to compensate for drift so it would amount to a leaky Dyson sphere. Of course one could not build structures on such a surface but it might go a long way towards Dyson's goal of using all (or most) of the star's energy and making the star less detectable to outside civilizations.
 
Last edited:
Some 8 years ago I posted some experiments using 2 Software Defined Radios slaved to a common clock. The idea was measure small thermal noise by making correlation measurements between the IQ samples from each radio. This is a project that has kinda smoldered in the background where I've made progress in fits and starts. Since most (all?) RA signals are small thermal signals it seemed like the technique should be a natural approach. A recent thread discussing the feasibility of using SDRs to...