Do you think the risk can be adequately and feasibly underwritten?
I mean, I suppose that technically a lone satellite with solar panels in orbit around the Sun is probably an extremely limited form of a Dyson sphere — it’s not as if there’s some firm lower bound on what percentage of energy output from the star that needs to be captured. One could presumably scale up incrementally.
So, in that technical sense, sure.
Could humanity in 2025 aspire to build enough infrastructure to capture something like 1% of the Sun’s output? No, that’s just way beyond our capabilities now.
I mean, I suppose that technically a lone satellite with solar panels in orbit around the Sun is probably an extremely limited form of a Dyson sphere — it’s not as if there’s some firm lower bound on what percentage of energy output from the star that needs to be captured. One could presumably scale up incrementally.
By that definition the solar panels that are already on the Earth are a tiny Dyson swarm. And honestly, I approve.
They aren’t in orbit, and they aren’t in orbit around a star, so not really part of a Dyson swarm (and also technically don’t add to the energy available to our civilization), but I still approve of your solar panels. You could argue that the ISS or the few solar orbit satellites we have are the start of a Dyson swarm even if they don’t add to our energy pool.
Well, I’m pretty sure the Earth is in orbit around a star [citation needed], so I would think solar panels on Earth would also be in orbit around a star.
I mean, I suppose that technically a lone satellite with solar panels in orbit around the Sun is probably an extremely limited form of a Dyson sphere — it’s not as if there’s some firm lower bound on what percentage of energy output from the star that needs to be captured. One could presumably scale up incrementally.
So, in that technical sense, sure.
Could humanity in 2025 aspire to build enough infrastructure to capture something like 1% of the Sun’s output? No, that’s just way beyond our capabilities now.
By that definition the solar panels that are already on the Earth are a tiny Dyson swarm. And honestly, I approve.
They aren’t in orbit, and they aren’t in orbit around a star, so not really part of a Dyson swarm (and also technically don’t add to the energy available to our civilization), but I still approve of your solar panels. You could argue that the ISS or the few solar orbit satellites we have are the start of a Dyson swarm even if they don’t add to our energy pool.
Well, I’m pretty sure the Earth is in orbit around a star [citation needed], so I would think solar panels on Earth would also be in orbit around a star.