AES219 Dyson Spheres
Rico
Tuesday December 28 2021, 12:35 AM
AES219 Dyson Spheres

Imagine if we could harness the power of our Sun. In order for us to expand our presence in space, we would need lots and lots of energy. What source is better than our very own star? The Sun produces 100 quintillion times more power than our most efficient nuclear reactor, it’s a supermassive continuous nuclear explosion, equivalent to 1 trillion high yield nuclear bombs per second. That's an unimaginably high number that our minds simply cannot visualize. 

Today, we already use energy from the Sun in limited everyday applications, like solar panels. But the amount of power we can extract from solar panels here is miniscule compared to the potential of absorbing it straight from the source. This is where the Dyson Sphere comes in.

A Dyson Sphere is a theoretical megastructure that would allow us to evolve from a planetary species to an interstellar one. Its concept involves building numerous energy-absorbing panels to encircle almost the entire area of the sun. These panels can orbit the Sun and collect the massive amounts of power it produces, giving us practically unlimited amounts of energy. If humanity ever reaches this stage, this Dyson Sphere project would be the most ambitious undertaking our species has ever done. 

It’s still just a cool science fiction idea for now, but I imagine it would definitely come closer to a possible reality as our technology advances. It’s a shame we won’t live to see the space-faring era of Humanity, I would very much like to explore the unknown, the final frontier. Oh well, all we can do now is dream and hope that humanity would survive to even reach that stage.