eirenicon comments on The Popularization Bias - Less Wrong

21 Post author: Wei_Dai 17 July 2009 03:43PM

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Comment author: eirenicon 17 July 2009 07:03:16PM 1 point [-]

There are multiple types of Dyson sphere. Dyson's original vision, a swarm of satellites, would be in orbit, but the popular version more commonly seen in fiction - a solid shell - would not, any more than the Earth orbits its own core (although any one point on the shell could plausibly be said to orbit the centre, provided the sphere is spinning).

Comment author: billswift 18 July 2009 09:08:02AM *  0 points [-]

A solid Dyson sphere is a dumb idea, the dynamics are unstable. See Niven's essay on the dynamics of ringworld for the problems, and realize a sphere would be even worse. I don't remember whether he discussed that in "Bigger than Worlds" or in an essay specifically on building Ringworld, he did discuss the dynamics problems in the novels as well.

Comment author: RolfAndreassen 19 July 2009 09:16:26PM 1 point [-]

So you have to expend a bit of energy moving it back to the midpoint every so often. What are attitude jets for?