[ExI] NASA doubts Dyson megastructures will ever be necessary

[BillK]

On Sat, 17 Aug 2024 at 22:51, Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> On Sat, Aug 17, 2024 at 7:24 AM BillK via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>>
>> “Large-scale stellar-energy harvesting structures may especially be
>> obsolete when considering technological advances,” adds Vincent
>> Kofman, a co-author of the paper at NASA Goddard and American
>> University, Washington, D.C. “Surely a society that can place enormous
>> structures in space would be able to access nuclear fusion or other
>> space-efficient methods of generating power.”
>
>
> What is solar, but a collection system for a conveniently premade (and needing no maintenance for billions more years) gigantic fusion reactor?
> _______________________________________________


Well, yes - solar panels can power their planetary civilisation.
The author was making the point that if the civ has the tech to build
large structures in space, then that implies that they have developed
other advanced power sources that remove the requirement for building
large Dyson energy collectors.
They will need a different energy source if they want to have
spaceships cruising around their system.
Small fusion power engines, or other power sources we haven't yet
discovered, will be needed for that.

BillK