Aliens Might Be Using Dyson Spheres to Harvest Energy From Black Holes, Scientists Say, A Dyson Sphere May Bring Humans Back From the Dead. A: Unfortunately, I cannot provide an accurate cost estimate for such a large amount of material, as the prices of these materials can vary greatly depending on many factors such as supply and demand, location, purity, and form. What is the difference between these 2 index setups? See this 2001 paper by Friedwardt Winterberg. George Dvorsky has advocated the use of self-replicating robots to overcome this limitation in the relatively near term. Could you build a shell only a few thousand kilometers in diameter around a relatively small black hole, or would millions of kilometers be the minimum safe distance? There are quantised zones where orbits are possible or not possible, so dont take other answers at face value if they involve relativistic speeds or distances within a few radii. Finding valid license for project utilizing AGPL 3.0 libraries. I know it's a thought experiment now, but these are practical problems that must face any possible society capable of building these structures. Dyson spheres all tie back to a system called the Kardashev scale, which is based on how much energy a civilization consumes. A: There are currently no mining robots specifically designed for mining metals on Psyche, as no such mission has yet been undertaken. One possible option would be the Space Launch System (SLS), a rocket being developed by NASA that is designed to carry heavy payloads into deep space. It is estimated to be worth over $10,000 quadrillion, making it one of the most valuable objects in the solar system. I suppose I should ask, but it's psychology not physics, why would a society that can build a DS be worried about other people/aliens noticing them:) A managed accretion disc would end your energy worries for a long time, hadn't thought of that aspect. Identify asteroids: The first step in asteroid mining is to identify suitable asteroids. It could potentially be used on Psyche to explore the asteroids surface and collect data on the distribution of metal. Communication equipment: Communication equipment is critical for maintaining contact with the mining and refining operations on Psyche, as well as for transmitting data and other information back to Earth. NASAs RASSOR (Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot) is a lunar mining robot that was developed to excavate and transport lunar regolith. The estimated cost for a new HIGmill ranges from $500,000 to $5 million, depending on the size and configuration. Estimates suggest that Callistos surface may contain around 5 x 10^17 kilograms of water ice, as well as significant amounts of other volatiles such as carbon dioxide and ammonia. To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. By clicking Post Your Answer, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy. [14][15] However, subsequent analysis showed that the results were consistent with the presence of dust. The estimated cost of the RESOLVE drill is $10 million. Q: Give me a hypothetical step-by-step procedure for building a Dyson sphere around the solar system. Navigation equipment: Navigation equipment is important for accurately navigating the spacecraft to the asteroid and for guiding the mining and refining operations on the asteroid. Some of the metals that could be mined from asteroids for this purpose include: Overall, asteroid mining could provide a valuable source of metals for the construction of a Dyson sphere, and ongoing research and development in this field could help to make this a more feasible and cost-effective option in the future. While matter and energy that fall through the event horizon are lost, stuff that stays farther out can still radiate energy and escape. Metso Outotecs HIGmill is a fine grinding mill used for processing ores and minerals. With tweaks that ensure even greater accuracy, we will soon be using chatGPT and its descendants to design complex technological projects and explore creative ideas. Notes: Never inhabited due to launch or on-orbit failure, Part of the, Feasibility and science-based speculation, Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia, "Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation", "STARSHIP CENTURY SYMPOSIUM, MAY 21 - 22, 2013", On the Inevitability and the Possible Structures of Supercivilizations, "When Will We Find the Extraterrestrials? | by Gunnar De Winter | Predict | Medium 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our Even if we assume that all of this material is usable for constructing the Dyson sphere and that it has the desired composition of 50% silicon, 30% carbon, and 20% metals, it still wouldnt be enough to construct a Dyson sphere with a radius of 1 AU and a thickness of 1 meter. Europa: Europa is another moon of Jupiter and is thought to have a subsurface ocean beneath its icy surface. which is a just about $10^7$light-seconds, or 0.3 light-years. Building a Dyson Sphere around any star requires very advanced capacities. because the speed of light is spatially variable, New blog post from our CEO Prashanth: Community is the future of AI, Improving the copy in the close modal and post notices - 2023 edition. Solar panels are more effective on planets close the sun while swarms are more effective if the sun has high luminosity. After all, dont black holes swallow everything that falls into the event horizon, including light? This is only more vital if the energy source is a black hole rather than a traditional star. The composition of this material would include silicon, carbon and metals. In 1960, physicist Freeman Dyson put forth a paper in Science that changed the way we talked about alien civilizations. I think Dirk has a valid point, but +1 for rigor and effort and a fun read. We've only been able to detect the presence of a few thousand exoplanets around alien stars. The estimated cost of solar panels ranges from $0.30 to $0.50 per watt, depending on the type and efficiency of the panel. Electrons etc cannot maintain their identity. In the new paper, published earlier this summer in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the researchers ponder what it would take to power a type 2 or type 3 civilization, whose energy needs consume their entire solar system: How could Earth become a type 2 civilization? It builds quickly and keeps every ray received in line of sight, and also makes the dyson sphere look like a giant Saturn. For doing this, borrowing an idea from Olaf Stapledon, Dyson imagined the civilization taking apart a number of the planets and other material in their solar system to build a shell of material that would fully enclose their planet, thus capturing far more of the heat than what they could otherwise. Several organizations, such as NASA and private companies like Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries, have already identified potential asteroids for mining. That's because the potential energy is mass-energy, in the pencil. Copper Copper is a good conductor of electricity and could be used for wiring and electrical components of the Dyson sphere. Determine the optimal distance from the sun at which to place the Dyson sphere. Let's say an individual's memories and mind fit into 2.5 terabytes of storage, which is an extremely low estimatethat means there's a server farm somewhere with 20 billion terabytes, which is 20 million petabytes, or about 20 exabytes. Give me a few examples of mining robots for mining metals on Psyche and their approximate cost. Dyson Spheres Around Black Holes: the Ultimate Energy Source? Q: What kind of fuel cells and solar panels would we be able to use? GRBs don't happen for nothing. A growing alien civilization may need to develop a way to harvest the energy of their host star. All trademarks are property of their respective owners in the US and other countries. Converting all those hard X-rays to some form that's easier to transmit or store. We also discuss a possible location of a Dyson sphere around a black hole. Some of the questions I asked chatGPT included: I verified at least some (but not all) of the numbers it gave me from other sources and was finally able to arrive at the following conclusion: Building a 1 meter thick Dyson sphere at 1 AU from the sun would take approximately 10^25 kilograms of material. A solar-sized black hole (BH) has a diameter of about 6000 m. It's apparent area is then $$A' = 4\pi r^2 = 4 \pi ({3000}^2) = 1.1 \times 10^8 m^2$$. "In this paper, we consider and discuss six types of energy sources: the CMB, the Hawking radiation, an accretion disk, Bondi accretion, a corona, and the relativistic jets from two types of black holes: a non-rotating black hole and a rotating black hole," the researchers explain. Browse other questions tagged, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site. Should a civilization this advanced exist, then they would probably already know of our existence by the time we discover the black hole Dyson sphere. This is significantly more than the estimated 4 x 10^20 kilograms of material that could be obtained from mining all of the asteroids in the solar system and the selected moons. Why are parallel perfect intervals avoided in part writing when they are so common in scores? Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan. A Dyson shell is (unfortunately) impossible to build. Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. Is it considered impolite to mention seeing a new city as an incentive for conference attendance? A curvature of rays of light can only take place when the velocity [speed] of propagation of light varies with position". Use MathJax to format equations. Does Chain Lightning deal damage to its original target first? A relativistic Kessler cascade is going to be a horrible problem. Now, all of this is obviously the purest of pure speculation. Mining robots: Psyche is believed to be made almost entirely of metal, so specialized mining robots would be needed to extract the metal from the asteroids surface and interior. But constructing a sphere around a star sounds tricky enough civilizations would need materials that would not tear themselves apart or gravitationally attach themselves around any nearby objects. Launch vehicle: $500 million to $1 billion, Mining robots: $5 million to $20 million per unit (depending on the type and complexity of the robot), Drilling equipment: $10 million to $50 million per unit (depending on the type and complexity of the drill), Metal refining equipment: $50 million to $100 million per unit (depending on the capacity and efficiency of the equipment), Storage and transportation equipment: $10 million to $20 million per unit (depending on the size and capacity of the equipment), Power generation equipment: $50 million to $100 million per unit (depending on the type and capacity of the equipment), Communication and navigation equipment: $10 million to $50 million per unit (depending on the type and complexity of the equipment), Human support equipment: $50 million to $500 million (depending on the extent and complexity of the equipment). 10 million conference attendance $ 500,000 to $ 5 million, depending the... 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