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GI_X_JACK t1_jdwqbgs wrote

Reply to comment by ShadoWolf in Would building a Dyson sphere be worth it: We ran the numbers. by filosoful

It is not, no. Perhaps the individual components are, but to Dyson scale, you'd need more literal material than the earth.

So you'd need to have a feasible way to mine, refine and manufacture in space, at scale. That does not exist. You'd also need advances in spaceship technology for all the mining and hauling materials and machines for processing.

In fact, I think even swarm, you'd need more material than all the rocky bodies in the solar system combined, so on top of being able to just strip all bodies including earth to nothing, which is not feasible with mining tech, you'd need interstellar travel to other worlds, and perhaps a way to harvest stuff off gas planets, etc...

So, the tech does not exist. Just ability to build small parts of it.

Next up, is building a dyson sphere even worth it, considering what other options open up once you have technology for that level of space travel, and resource harvesting needed for production at that scale?

Likely not.

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ShadoWolf t1_jdwsggb wrote

ya you break down mercury for components. Or use stellar lifting to directly pull iron and other elements from solar plasma .. This is all a 100% do able.. it just a multi + generational project with current technologies. And it get a lot easier with functional fusion and AI systems

Its also a natural progression of something we are going to want to do anyway.

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GI_X_JACK t1_jdwunhz wrote

>ya you break down mercury for component.

So you need to launch a space ship, that can land on mercury, then mine it, then launch that back into space. Then process that into building materials and construct that where?

None of the tech to do that exists.

> functional fusion

Fusion electricity is a pipe dream itself, but that is far far far closer to reality, and 50/50 that winds up working at some point.

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