The best crazy ideas always come from scientists. One of my favourites comes from physicist, Freeman Dyson, who theorised that advanced civilizations might turn their stars into gigantic power stations In the '60s his work was purely theoretical, but in 2016 things got weird...
Theoretically, the power station would look something like this, but who knows?
Astronomers discovered a star with the catchy name of KIC 8462852 had been dimming for more than a hundred years, as far back as records went. Why does that matter? Because it’s exactly what would happen if aliens were doing the power station thing. The scientifically inclined can see what proper astronomers were saying about it here…
https://astronomynow.com/2016/08/08/kepler-finds-tabbys-star-is-mysteriously-dimming/
According to Dyson’s theory, aliens would use all the matter in a solar system to encase the star in something like a gargantuan spherical solar panel, providing functionally unlimited energy. But even if you’ve got the tech, one of these things isn’t going up overnight.
Building a Dyson sphere would take decades, and as the pieces came together they’d obstruct more and more light from the star. And over the last century or so KIC 8462852 (which fortunately has another name, Tabby’s star) has dimmed by 22 percent.
Various boring theories - comets, dust etc- have been put forward to explain the phenomenon, but thankfully none of them so far fit all the data. Of course, someone will one day find an answer, but until then, we can all look up and imagine life around Tabby's star.
When he wasn't dreaming up sci-fi concepts (which have been adapted by authors from Larry Niven to Iain M. Banks), Dyson did some theorising about colonising space. He felt it would only be viable when the cost per colonist came down to what around the Mayflower pilgrims paid.
Setting aside the dubious ethics of colonisation, Dyson's calculations on what it would take to make it work in space are interesting. He worked out the cost per Mayflower pilgrim was about $40,000 in 1970's money, which equates to around $150K today.
That's a lot of money, only achievable for prosperous adults prepared to bet the farm on a journey into the unknown. The Mayflower carried 135 pilgrims, so the total investment comes to around $20 million. The price tag for a single space shuttle mission is around $450 mil. Of course, that figure includes a lot of other costs besides the launch, but then so does a voyage of exploration.
And the shuttle is a long way from an interstellar vehicle. To make space colonisation viable, it would take something radical, like the space elevator concept, which eliminates launch costs. It is exactly what it sounds like - an elevator to space.
One of the little things that makes me happy is that the International Space Elevator Consortium actually exists IRL (https://isec.org) And the recent development of carbon nanotubes brings the dream one step closer to reality.
The space elevator guys reckon on a cost of $100 per kilo to get cargo into orbit, so even a big lump like me can get into space for $10K. Suddenly, Freeman Dyson's Mayflower pilgrim pricetag looks a lot more attainable...
Does that mean we're all heading for the stars as soon as we figure out how to build something massive out of carbon nanotubes? For now, they're still highly experimental, but I can't wait to find out where this story goes.
Thank you, Freeman Dyson, for all the crazy ideas.