Re: [GZG] Shifting planets

[Samuel Penn <sam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Friday 28 July 2006 19:14, Richard Kirke wrote:
> Lurking field down... transmision begins
>
> Was chatting last night to my housemate. The conversation moved (I honestly
> cannot explian how...) round to Dyson spheres. And I suggested that
> possibly the easiest way to create more living space in the correct orbit
> would be to just shift a planet into the correct orbit. E.g., we just ease
> Venus a bit further out and terraform it.

This is mentioned in passing in 'To Crush the Moon'[1] (which I'm reading
at the moment) by a couple of people who are talking about trying to make
more living space in the solar system. It's meant as a joke. :-) They
settle on squashing the moon to give it a decent surface gravity, since
they consider that much easier (given the technology they have available,
it is).

Planets are big, and difficult to move. It might be a possible long term
project if you've got reactionless drives, but you've also got to worry
about stress on the planet's crust etc.

You would need a Type II civilisation[2] at the very least. The cloud of
habitats Robert describes is actually what a Dyson Sphere is, not a
solid shell (though many SF stories depict them as solid shells). Moving
a planet would probably be easier than a solid 'Dyson Sphere', but much
harder than Dyson's actual idea.

> Anyone ever thought about this?

Alternatively, you could ask Richard Seaton[3] for a hand. He was able
to move all the human habitable planets from one galaxy to another,
just before turning all the stars in the first galaxy supernova.


[1] 'To Crush the Moon', by Wil McCarthy. 4th book in a series,
    'The Collapsium', 'Wellstone' and 'Lost in Transmission' are
    the first. About a society with replicator technology.

[2] Type I: Can harness the energy of a planet.
    Type II: Can harness the energy of a solar system.
    Type III: Can harness the energy of a galaxy.

[3] EE 'Doc' Smith's Lensman series. The Skylark of Valeron was
    pretty much a planet (with most of its mass given over to either
    shield generators, armour or weapon systems).

-- 
Be seeing you,                         http://www.glendale.org.uk
Sam.                        
              IM: samuel.penn@xxxxxxxxxx or samuel.penn@xxxxxxxxx
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