Can the Empire build a Dyson Sphere ?

[Sarevok]

Can the Empire build a dyson sphere around the solar system assuming they have all the resources in the star wars galaxy ? The Empire has 25 years to finish the job.

I think so. The dyson sphere is a truly massive object, even the death star does not come close to it. This may indicate that the dyson sphere is too big even for the Empire. However there are some reasons why they can build a dyson sphere.

Two thirds of the death star was constructed in complete secrecy in six months without any impact on the galactic economy whatsoever. This indicates the enormous imperial industrial capacity. Also they have world devastators which turn entire planets into useful materials.

So the Empire has enough raw materials to build a dyson sphere but do they have the engineering capacity to put one togather ? The death star is a good example of their engineering. All the raw materials for the moon sized battlestation was transported by the private Black Sun shipping corporation. If this is the transport capability of a private company bringing in the raw materials into the solar for system for construction work would not be a problem for the imperial fleet.

The second problem would be making the parts for the dyson sphere. A star system sized object would require massive abounts of of high quality parts, making them within a reasonable period of time will be an important challenge. However they have duplicator technology which works like star trek replicators. This was used to rapidly fabricate parts for the death star onsite since the Black Sun only brought raw materials not prefabricated parts.

Putting the dyson sphere togather would also not be a problem. The Empire put the death star,a much more thicker object togather very quickly. Since the dyson spheres thickness is not great the Empire can just buid thousand kilomater long sections in solar orbit and put them to gather later. This would not be a problem since they can already move massive objects such as planets with huge tractor beams like the centerporint station.

The most important question is would an imperial dyson sphere hold itself togather. We know that a dyson sphere must deal with gravity, radiation, heat, asteriod impacts etc. The Empire can deal with all these problems.
Gravitational forces would not be problem in an imperial dyson sphere because of two reasons. First the Empire can use neutronium, the same material that made up the original dyson sphere in "Relics". Secondly the death star can survive thousands of gees without destroying itself indicating very advanced structural field systems used to hold a moon sized battlestation togather. Using these technologies the Empire can build a stable dyson sphere.

Radiation and heat too would not be problem since the death star and ISDs can easily dissipate the enormous heat produced by their hypermatter reactors. The same cooling systems can also be used in a dyson sphere.

And asteriod impacts would be no a problem at all since the Empire can use planetary type shield generators. Considering their enormous strength only a small moon would be able to bring them down, but a small would not be a threat in the first place because the Death Star is there.

Any comments ?

[Tosho]

If the Empire made building The Dyson sphere its top priority it would be a very task for them.

[NecronLord]

There were rumours a while back that KDY was a dyson sphere...

[Frank Hipper]

But why would they waste the resources on something of such dubious value?

[TurboPhaser]

I suppose they could, but it take longer than 25 years.

[SirNitram]

On second thoughts, they seem to produce similar structures already.

Gravity-altering devices include repulsorlifts that allow unpowered
antigravity flotation, tractor-0beam projectors for remote applicaiton of
force, and acceleration compensators that prevent pulverization of starship
occupants during maneuvers. The gravitoactive constituents of these devices
are subnuclear knots of space-time made in enourmous, unmanned power
refineries encompassing black holes."

Relevent part bolded. Not necessarily a Dyson Sphere, but still some structure that can surround a stellar body(Perhaps a closed Ringworld?).

[Ender]

Based on all the evidence, and heavy analysis on my part, I would say that the definitive answer is: Possibly.

Though "Maybe" is still a lesser yet possible chance.

[Alyeska]

But why would they waste the resources on something of such dubious value?

On the contrary, such a structure would be imensly valuable. It would maximise the use of a star when it comes to a civilization living under it. The imense area could hold trillions up trillions of people. I would hazzard a guess that a single Dyson sphere could hold the entire population of the SW galaxy.

[Crayz9000]

On the contrary, such a structure would be imensly valuable. It would maximise the use of a star when it comes to a civilization living under it. The imense area could hold trillions up trillions of people. I would hazzard a guess that a single Dyson sphere could hold the entire population of the SW galaxy.

... now that's stretching it.

A single Dyson Sphere could easily hold the entire population of Coruscant and the Corellian system, I'm sure. But to say that it could hold several quintillion beings? Talk about stretching it...

[NecronLord]

It's not worth it because a few hundred ringworlds and culture orbitals would not only require less artificial gravity, but will also be less vunerable to supernova induction and radiation changes in the star.

[Alyeska]

On the contrary, such a structure would be imensly valuable. It would maximise the use of a star when it comes to a civilization living under it. The imense area could hold trillions up trillions of people. I would hazzard a guess that a single Dyson sphere could hold the entire population of the SW galaxy.

... now that's stretching it.

A single Dyson Sphere could easily hold the entire population of Coruscant and the Corellian system, I'm sure. But to say that it could hold several quintillion beings? Talk about stretching it...

If a single planet like Coruscant can hold over a trillion people, think how many a Dyson sphere can hold. You have to have a larger orbit (no night time mind you) size basicaly. You have the entire diameter of that orbit. You then have to think 3d. Think about just how much space there is going to be. Then with such a sphere there is going to be plenty of sub-rooms built into the sphere itself. Even more people as well as supplies and cargo can stay down there.

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

Multiple smaller ships would be easier to construct and less vulnerable. And it's not like there's a space problem in SW.

[YT300000]

But why would they waste the resources on something of such dubious value?

On the contrary, such a structure would be imensly valuable. It would maximise the use of a star when it comes to a civilization living under it. The imense area could hold trillions up trillions of people. I would hazzard a guess that a single Dyson sphere could hold the entire population of the SW galaxy.

Star Wars power generators can easily produce more energy than a star. A Dyson sphere is pointless.

I did some calcs a while back, and the Dyson sphere worked out be 10 times size of DS2. That would mean that the Empire could build one in about 12 years and 3 months. Also, they wouldn't need to install any weaponry or electronics, making production faster.

[Col. Crackpot]

i don't know.....i mean we are talking about something 2AU in diameter! if they even could do it it would consume most of the galaxy's industrial capacity during the constuction process...and the raw materials needed to build a sphere 2AU in diameter would be enourmous.....millions of planets worth...if not more. quite frankly i do not see the practicallity of building such a thing. very wasteful

[His Divine Shadow]

I did some calcs a while back, and the Dyson sphere worked out be 10 times size of DS2

Thats... utterly ludicrous, the DS2 is 800km or so in diameter, a Dyson Sphere is around 2 AU's, or around 298 million kilometers.

[YT300000]

I did some calcs a while back, and the Dyson sphere worked out be 10 times size of DS2

Thats... utterly ludicrous, the DS2 is 800km or so in diameter, a Dyson Sphere is around 2 AU's, or around 298 million kilometers.

I thought the Dyson sphere is 120 000 km in diameter.

I used the DS2 being 900 km in diameter figure.

[His Divine Shadow]

I did some calcs a while back, and the Dyson sphere worked out be 10 times size of DS2

Thats... utterly ludicrous, the DS2 is 800km or so in diameter, a Dyson Sphere is around 2 AU's, or around 298 million kilometers.

I thought the Dyson sphere is 120 000 km in diameter.

I used the DS2 being 900 km in diameter figure.

No, a Dyson Sphere encloses a star, and the inner surface ought to be as far away as our planet is from the sun.

[YT300000]

Thats... utterly ludicrous, the DS2 is 800km or so in diameter, a Dyson Sphere is around 2 AU's, or around 298 million kilometers.

I thought the Dyson sphere is 120 000 km in diameter.

I used the DS2 being 900 km in diameter figure.

No, a Dyson Sphere encloses a star, and the inner surface ought to be as far away as our planet is from the sun.

What type of star did the sphere enclose? Was it the same size as sol?

[YT300000]

It's also important to consider that the DS2 was made using only a small amount of the galaxy's manufacturing capability. The entire Empire could probably make a Dyson sphere pretty quickly if it used all of its resources.

[Admiral Johnason]

I'd give them 10 years of R&D and 5 years in production to build one. It would take the resources of two or three rich sectors to pull it off, plus lots of slave and droid labor working around the clock. But yes, they could build it.

[His Divine Shadow]

I thought the Dyson sphere is 120 000 km in diameter.

I used the DS2 being 900 km in diameter figure.

No, a Dyson Sphere encloses a star, and the inner surface ought to be as far away as our planet is from the sun.

What type of star did the sphere enclose? Was it the same size as sol?

I have no idea, but the size I gave would be the one if we had a Sol type star.

[YT300000]

Seems that the star inside IS ~ the same size as ours:

The Enterprise picks up a long-running distress call from the USS Jenolan, a ship that disappeared 75 years ago. They drop out of warp to help, and are immediately shaken by an enormous gravitational field. Although the source is not immediately visible, they trace the field to its center, and find a large metallic shell, 200 million kilometers in diameter, completely surrounding a star. In other words, they've discovered the first known Dyson sphere, used to harness the entire radiant energy output of a star for inhabitants of the sphere's huge inner surface. The Jenolan is located on the surface of the sphere a short distance away, and they head for it.

[Ubiquitous]

I think people are underestimating just how difficult it would be to build a DS. Firstly, you have to create the industry possible to even create the DS [I can't even fathom how you would make sure a thing]. Next, you need to have enough neutronium to create the structure. Then you have to shift the manpower to the system in order to create the thing, which would require millions, perhaps billions of workers ...

No, this isn't even Culture level, this is Xeelee level work on the go. Your Empire needs to be universe spanning before you can find the raw material to construct such a device. I can think of only two races who could build such a structure; the ST builders and the Xeelee.

Of course, you could try and make one from something less than neutronium, but then it wouldn't be a true DS ...

[SirNitram]

Of course, you could try and make one from something less than neutronium, but then it wouldn't be a true DS ...

That post was so full of shit I expected a flushing sound when I hit 'quote'.

A 'True' DS, you ignorant little trekkie, is a collection of iron spheres orbiting at approximately 1AU, soaking up the sun's rays. Raiding the Oort Cloud and Asteroid Belt should produce enough iron to capture the majority of the sun's rays.

An 'Enclosed' Sphere is harder to build, but still not requiring even Empire level tech. As Larry Niven pointed out(In A Step Further Out), the mass needed for it is present in the system we live in now. Of course, we'd need to perfect cheap transmutation to convert Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune into iron, along with the Oort Cloud and Asteroid Belt, to produce a thin one. Any group with decent FTL, reach, and shipping can gather these resources.

The biggest problems such a Sphere encounters are easily overcome with Imperial technology: Gravity can be generated without spin(Removing the problem of the atmosphere gathering on the 'equator'), and shielding can prevent asteroids from wrecking havoc.

Now, on to what you probably thought was a rebuttal. Neutronium does not need to be present for a true Dyson Sphere. The concept was not developed by Trek. If, for some bizarre reason, the Empire wanted it coated in it, it's quite possible: You do recall that the Empire maintained millions of ships, all of which had Imperial Dura-Armour, which is Neutronium based, right?

Finally, I point to my quote, to show that the Empire has use for Dyson Sphere's: They use them to harvest Black Holes and produce antigrav.

[NecronLord]

No, this isn't even Culture level,

HA!

HA HA HA

The culture had Spheres. and Rings and Orbitals several centuries before most of the books. (Consider Phlebas)