What is a Dyson sphere?

Today we go back to the 1960s to talk about this hypothetical megastructure.

To summarize, a Dyson sphere would be a very advanced technology capable of harnessing the power of the Sun. Although it sounds like science fiction, the idea of ​​creating a Dyson sphere is very possible and could become a reality once the technology advances properly. towards this ambitious idea. Furthermore, the creation of a Dyson sphere could be the key to space travel beyond our own stars and the future colonization of humanity.

Human history has been shaped by the energy we use. At first, we used our muscles, but then we discovered fire and learned how to control it and obtain energy. Later, we learned to use coal and oil to fuel industrial advances. Then we kicked off the Atomic Age, where we learned the art of splitting a nucleus to harness an enormous amount of energy. With each successive step, we increase our energy utilization to levels never before achieved and also advance significantly as a species. We are currently looking for new ways to source renewable energy sources to meet our growing energy requirements.

As humanity progresses, we are likely to gain complete control of our planet's resources. At that stage, we will probably run out of resources and have a dire need to explore and colonize other habitable places in the cosmos. However, space is complex, so invading it will require enormous amounts of energy. Luckily, we know where to get it: the Sun, which is the most important source of energy for our solar system.

Scientists have long known the magnanimity of solar energy, but with solar panels, we tap into only a portion of that potential. However, what if we could devise a method to harvest all of the sun's energy? If so, we are likely to use some form of the megastructure called the Dyson sphere.

Originally proposed by legendary physicist Freeman Dyson, the Dyson sphere remains to this day one of the most interesting theoretical ideas proposed in the world of astrophysicists. It consists of a megastructure that completely encompasses the star (the Sun or any other star) to harness its energy.

For humanity, building a Dyson sphere would be a technological leap on par with the discovery of the wheel by our ancestors. A Dyson sphere could help us transform from a planetary species to an interstellar one.

Freeman Dyson postulated that, as a civilization becomes technologically advanced and depletes its planetary energy sources, it would need to extract energy from outside its planet. Drawing energy from the nearest star would be the best bet. To do so, an advanced civilization would have to create an artificial sphere around the sun to harness its enormous amounts of energy. According to the English theoretical physicist, a literal solid sphere encapsulating the sun would be incredibly unstable and require more material than even the combination of all the planets in our solar system could provide. Instead, he estimated that a Dyson sphere could be made from millions of individual solar-gathering satellites.

A Dyson sphere in our solar system would have a radius of 1 AU (astronomical unit) and a minimum surface area of 2.72x 1017 km2, approximately 600 million times the surface area of the Earth.

Creating an infrastructure to build, deploy and maintain swarms or bubbles of solar harvesting satellites around the Sun is simply not possible with the resources we currently have on Earth. We would need some kind of "self-replicating" machines, like those proposed by Canadian futurist George Dvorsky, to build a true Dyson sphere.

Certainly most of the technology and resources needed to build a Dyson sphere don't exist or are still in their infancy. Not to mention the logistics and raw materials needed to create the megastructure, the builders would need to extract materials from nearby planets, refine them, and transport them to the appropriate star. So... there is still a long way to go.