From: Stirling Westrup (sti@cam.org)
Date: Thu Dec 07 2000 - 09:22:12 MST
Emlyn wrote:
> Can't that be corrected by a seperate mechanism? The dyson sphere is, after
> all, collecting energy. So, couldn't you use some kind of mechanical
> mechanism (duh...) to straighten it out? Or, there must be some way to turn
> a tiny bit of that massive amount of collected energy into precisely
> focused thrust, capable of repositioning elements of the sphere.
Of course. And, as many have pointed out here already, the very idea of a
Dyson sphere is a bit passe. I was working on the problem more out of
curiosity than anything else. Some of my other friends have already taken
me to task for preferring inherent stability to a maintained dynamic
stability, but I just don't find something that has to be tweaked
constantly as elegant as something that just works because its the right
shape.
> You could place a lot of rings on the inside of the sphere, like baby
> ringworlds. Mount them like ferris-wheels on the inner surface, slightly
> misaligned so that the inner surface of each ring receives some light -
> just the part closest to the "ground" (inner dyson sphere surface. Then,
> spin all the rings. The inner surface of each ring receives light
> sometimes, and is dark sometimes.
Then why bother building the sphere? Why not just have a collection of
spinning rings?
> > The upshot of this would be that the dyson sphere would be stable on two
> > axes, but still unstable along its rotational axis. Its not a total
> > solution, but it does make the problem more managable.
>
> Put a spinning dyson sphere inside a larger, spinning ring. They share a
> center, and the outer ring passes over the two rotational poles of the
> inner spinning sphere. Use something to attract the dyson sphere outward to
> the ring at the poles, or maybe all the way around. Maybe magnetism?
> Somebody creative could suggest something.
> Maybe a lot of outer rings (3 place orthogonally to each other, plus more?)
> plus some attractive mechanism, could be used to stabilise the otherwise
> unstable sphere?
The orbital mechanics for this start to get REAL messy, and pass beyond
what I can solve with my limited understanding.
--
Stirling Westrup | Use of the Internet by this poster
sti@cam.org | is not to be construed as a tacit
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