Could We Build Solar Panels Around The Sun? (Dyson Spheres and Rings)
Could We Build Solar Panels Around The Sun? (Dyson Spheres and Rings)
2017-08-25
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you have any idea how much power the Sun
sends out into space it's over 384 yata
watts
nearly the equivalent of 92 billion
megatons of TNT every second I mean just
think about how many hot pockets that
can microwave but seriously though only
a tiny fraction of this power actually
reaches the earth and while this is a
good thing in some respects I mean we
all be vaporized if that much energy hit
us all at once the sun's energy is
responsible in one way or another for
basically everything on earth so
wouldn't it be cool if we could harness
all that potential well probably but
this is basically the definition of
easier said than done I mean the best
we've come up with here at Tech wiki is
may be covering the Australian outback
and solar panels but another idea that's
been kicked around quite a bit is the
Dyson Sphere and no I'm not talking
about the ball-shaped thing on an
overpriced vacuum cleaner a Dyson Sphere
as a shell source built around a star
like the Sun to capture its energy
output so it can be used later for just
about anything and if you're sitting
there thinking nope enough tech quickie
for me today cuz this is clearly science
fiction I can't really say I blame you
because it is not only is there probably
not even enough matter in our entire
solar system to surround the Sun with a
big egg shell thing but because of the
way gravity works when the sphere
surrounds an object there wouldn't be
anything to keep it from bumping into
the Sun which would be a galactically
awful disaster for what I hope for
obvious reasons but other Dyson desk
solutions could help us solve our
resource crisis one day and make
everything from more powerful computing
to paying just a nickel on your power
bill every year possible in the future
now one idea is to put a bunch of energy
collectors into orbit around the Sun
forming a Dyson ring really not all that
dissimilar to how we currently have tons
of man-made satellites orbiting the
Earth now these Dyson satellites would
be fitted with large energy collectors
similar to solar panels now obviously
we've had
like solar power for quite some time now
but recent scientific development has
produced infrared collectors and since
over 90 percent of the sun's emitted
energy is in the form of either visible
or infrared light it isn't absurd to
think we could have collection
technology one day efficient enough to
grab huge amounts of it other proposals
call for building multiple Dyson rings
around the Sun to form a cage or a swarm
of sorts or even using structures called
solar sails that are so thin and
reflective that they're actually pushed
by the sun's radiation but also pulled
inward by the sun's gravity at the same
time rendering them stable solar cells
have actually already been deployed for
other applications but of course while
all of this is at least technically
feasible
unlike the hollow sphere we discussed
earlier there are still large obstacles
to overcome
ignore the challenges of getting all the
energy back to earth and everything from
tethers and space elevators with giant
wires to beaming concentrated sunlight
directly back to the Earth's surface and
hoping it doesn't turn into a giant
death ray has been proposed actually
collecting the construction materials is
also a massive undertaking one popular
idea involves sending robots to Mercury
to mine useful raw materials like iron
that could be used to manufacture energy
collectors which would in turn provide
more energy to expand a Dyson structure
further now something like this would
obviously still take quite a bit of time
to accomplish but the hope is that as
more and more Dyson collectors were
built production could wrap up
exponentially or at least that's what we
would plant until the emperor if he
shows up displeased with our current
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alright guys thanks for watching tech
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