By the way, about the Dyson sphere. Mr. Wong wrote on Stardestroyer.net, that the star inside the sphere produces about 44% Sunpower.
This is a mistake, actually (could be typical, but I'm not sure how common DySp's are in SF). The sphere is not a planet, it has completely different heat dissipation conditions. Simply speaking, the outer surface must dissipate all the energy produced by the star, while following the Stefan–Boltzmann law
And, according to the Second law of thermodynamics, the temperature of the outer surface can't be higher than that of the inside. Now, if you apply the formula to the 44% Sunpower (SD.net has the constants), you get an outer surface temperature of, approximately, 118 degrees Celsius. In order to get 300 Kelvin - And I don't think the temperature could be higher - You need to lower the power to about 15% Sunpower. To get 15 Celsius (the average for Earth), you need to drop it to 11%.
Of course, it doesn't take into account the insulation provided by the sphere, which may make a considerable temperature difference between the outer and inner surface. Perhaps we can ignore the metal looking parts - a dense, strong material is probably a good heat conductor - but the soil is lousy in this respect, and, having to support life and being constantly recycled by it, it can't be tampered with much. A mere fifty degrees difference will about half the power.
The interesting part is, the stars with the appropriate power shown on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram are noticeably colder than the Sun - which, of course, is even less flattering for the ST shields.
Greetings and respect to Mr Wong, and all the other people on the forum.
Dyson Sphere
Moderator: Vympel
- Lord Pounder
- Pretty Hate Machine
- Posts: 9695
- Joined: 2002-11-19 04:40pm
- Location: Belfast, unfortunately
- Contact:
- Ghost Rider
- Spirit of Vengeance
- Posts: 27779
- Joined: 2002-09-24 01:48pm
- Location: DC...looking up from the gutters to the stars