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5 Fascinating SciFi Megastructures

Some of the Strangest hypothetical Megastructures.

By RadioactronPublished 3 years ago 5 min read
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Mujia Liao-Art Station

Till date There have been many Megastructures proposed by the Researchers. This Concepts are so much fascinating than other things with high end technologies. We’ll see 5 of the best Megastructure Concepts about how we can make, scale comparisons, within technologies, etc.
(HOLD YOUR DEVICE TIGHT AND GET AMAZED BY READING )


1) MATRIOSHKA BRAIN

Can you Imagine a large Computer which can compute the information from brains of humans and the
information about all the Universe?
Well this hypothetical megastructure – Matrioshka Brain can do such large computation. Proposed by Robert J. Bradbury, matrioshka brain is a large computer made up of dyson spheres around the star which can harness a star’s energy to compute the Information. It is based on type 2 civilization more probably a civilization which can harness energy at the scale of a planetary system.
Having a Matrioshka brain in our solar system is kind of a high level Science Fiction but building a large structure like this is worth or not? Let’s see some uses of this Megastructure-
a) Computing information of the entire universe for new discoveries
b) Simulating the thoughts, ideas of all most all humans
c) Contacting other civilization inside and beyond the Universe, etc.
Biggest Question are we able to make a Matrioshka brain?

Answer is that matrioshka brain doesn’t violates the current laws of physics but we’ll need so much resources that we could gain from asteroid mining, moon mining and resources from other planets,etc and need decades to build it as the size of this Megastructure exceeds the size of the star around which
it’s made.


2) THE BERNAL SPHERE

What Exactly is a Bernal Sphere? Before that take a glimpse of it’s illustration.

Wow it looks much futuristic. So how can habitation exist there? Main question arises about- Gravity!
In 1929, J.D.Bernal proposed a space habitat known as “Bernal Sphere”. This Concept was made for nearly 10,000 peoples. It consists of a covering for the protection of the habitants, the sphere inside this covering consists habitants. This sphere rotates to create artificial gravity which is nearly 70% of earth’s gravity as per size near about 16 to 18 kilometres. Here a visible surface is an outer shell which shields the habitat from cosmic rays and solar flares and the shell is accumulated from the slag of individual processes and also consist flat, paddle-like fixtures which radiate away the waste heat of the habitat into the cold of outer surface. Nearer to sphere, stacked rings are designed for agricultural areas which helps in providing for the needs of the workforce. The sphere is designed in such a way that series of mirrors allows entrance of sunlight into the habitat at controlled hours, where the first stage governs the "day-night" cycle whereas the second stage passed the light at a desired angle. Such habitat is assumed to be technically feasible towards the end of this century and the workforce of a space manufacturing complex may well living quarters here.


3) STANFORD TORUS

Imagine…Your home in space habitat where you can witness the star more clearly, witness the earth from space seems to be more interesting. Well we have a concept for it.
It’s the design considered by the 1975 NASA Summer Study. Stanford Torus consists of a torus or doughnut shaped ring which rotates one per minute to provide Earth-normal gravity and can house upto 10,000 people. Agriculture is conducted on multiple tiers for efficient use of space and it appears as a long, narrow, straight glacial valley where it’s ends curves upward eventually forming the circle.


4) O’NEILL CYLINDER

A great megastructure concept which highlights space settlement concept in a modified way along with fascinating features.
Space habitat concept proposed by American physicist General K. O’Neill in his 1976 book “The High frontier: Human colonies in space”. The project is proposed colonisation of space for 21st century using material extracted from the Moon and asteroids. It consists of 2 counter rotating cylinders that rotates in opposite direction connected by rod via a bearing system.
Hence, rotation provides artificial gravity to cancel gyroscopic effect so that it could aim the Sun with ease. This cylinder rotates which creates gravity on inner surface and the habitat rotates about twenty-eight times an hour to simulate a standard Earth gravity with an angular velocity of 2.8 degrees per second. We call it as centrifugal force.
Research on humans indicated low rotation speeds people experienced motion sickness due to coriolus forces acting on inner ear. Despite this, people could be able to detect spinward and antispinward directions by turning their heads. Even dropped itemsappears deflected by few centimetres. The Central axis of habitat would be zero gravity region and thought to be fruitful for recreational facilities. In this megastructure oxygen similar to terrestrial 20% of earth’s air would be maintained and nitrogen would be included to add further 30% of the earth’s pressure thus half-pressure atmosphere saves gas and reduce the needed strength and thickness of habitat walls.
It’s designed so that large mirrors could reflect sunlight into the inner surface through windows, which throws an imaginary occlusion of movement of the sun. Besides, this phenomenon creates natural progression of sun angles while night is just simulated by opening the windows. Even precautions has been taken to prevent catastrophic damage but it’s also predicted that large volume of habitat would make the situation unalarming. Hence the project could be seen successfully.


5) DYSON SPHERE

How good it sounds to capture energy from the stars, isn’t it???
The same happens with the hypothetical megastructure that completely surrounds a star and takes large percentage of it’s power.
This model is nothing but the Dyson sphere which is an artificial habitat build around a star by a civilization with sufficient technology. It’s intended to capture as much as possible of the power output of the star and should be a distinctive characteristics of a civilization able to control the resources of a planetary system.
The first contemporary description of the structure was made by Olaf Stapled in his science fiction novel” Star maker” which explains” every solar system….
Surrounded by a gauze of light traps which focused on the escaping solar energy for intelligent case” but later the concept was popularized by Freeman Dyson in his 1960 paper “ Search for artificial stellar sources of Infrared radiation” and speculated such to be logical consequence of the escalating energy needs for technological civilization and a necessity for long term survival. Due to expanded energy demands by human civilization, a time when total energy output of sun would be demanded for existence is not unimaginable. Hence, such models are a hope for the future and long term survival of living as different types of Dyson spheres and their energy harvesting ability would correspond to levels of technological advancements on the Kardashev scale,but such megaprojects are currently beyond the humanity’s engineering capacity.

Article by:- Saumya Mishra

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Tags: Bernal Sphere, Stanford Torus, Dyson Sphere, Matrioshka Brain, O'Neill Cylinder, Science Fiction, Megastructures, Space.

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