Megastructures: Science And Speculation

MEGASTRUCTURES: SCIENCE AND SPECULATION

by Paul Lucas

Copyright 2015 by Paul Lucas

Cover Illustration by Paul Lucas

Smashwords Edition

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART 1: Challenging the Scale of the Universe

CHAPTER 1 - Introduction

CHAPTER 2 - Tech Levels

PART 2: Terrestrial Megastructures

CHAPTER 3 - Supertall Skyscrapers

CHAPTER 4 - Arcologies

CHAPTER 5 - Modular Megaships

CHAPTER 6 - Artificial Islands

CHAPTER 7 - Megacities

CHAPTER 8 - Megascale Launch Towers

CHAPTER 9 - Lofstrom Loop

CHAPTER 10 - Space Elevators

PART 3: Space Megastructures

CHAPTER 11 - Orbital Tethers

CHAPTER 12 - Space Stations

CHAPTER 13 - Light Sails

CHAPTER 14 - Space Colonies

CHAPTER 15 - Hollowed Asteroids and Comets

CHAPTER 16 - Rosettes

CHAPTER 17 - Planetary Halo

PART 4: Artificial Worlds

CHAPTER 18 - Balloon World

CHAPTER 19 - Megastations

CHAPTER 20 - Topopolis

CHAPTER 21 - Ringworlds

PART 5: Stellar Scale Megastructures

CHAPTER 22 - Alderson Disk

CHAPTER 23 - Dyson Spheres

CHAPTER 24 - Star Movers

PART 6: Beyond

CHAPTER 25 - Sculpted Galaxies

CHAPTER 26 - Pocket Universes

APPENDIX 1: Glossary

APPENDIX 2: Further Notes on Tech Levels

APPENDIX 3: Consolidated Further Information Links

The Shattered Sky Preview

Other Books by Paul Lucas

FOREWARD

This book is about exploring ideas, as imagined by scientists, engineers, authors, and artists alike.

Every attempt has been made to be scientifically accurate where practical. However, this book is meant to present speculative science concepts to the casual reader rather than as an engineering or scientific thesis for dedicated professionals. Where available, links are provided to destinations online where interested users can find much more detailed information for the structures discussed. But in the end, this book is as much about speculation as science.

That being said, if a significant error in the science is spotted, just contact the author at the email given at the end of this volume and he'll do his best to correct it.

Many resources already cover real-life megastructures such as bridges, dams, domes, skyscrapers, and more. It is left up to the readers to look those up on their own, as this work deals with megastructures that still remain in the realm of the imagination... so far.

* * *

PART ONE

CHALLENGING THE SCALE OF THE UNIVERSE

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

When most people think of worlds, they think of big balls of rock and gas orbiting a star. In fiction, conceptual variations tend toward strange atmospheres, odd compositions, or perhaps even exotic native life. One world might have a crimson sky and a dozen moons; another with a vibrant ring system may be locked in a perpetual ice age.

But these are only worlds as nature might make them. Just as mankind has created new, artificial chemical elements, so too is it possible for the human race to eventually create entirely new classes of worlds. Worlds that may stretch around planets or trap the energy output of entire stars. Worlds that may challenge the scale of the universe.

These immense artifacts are collectively known as Megastructures.

This work is designed as a layman-friendly overview to familiarize readers to the many types of Megastructures that have populated science fiction and speculative thought through the years. Megastructures are easily one of the most awe-inducing concepts produced by human imagination, and the musings and educated guesses of various creators and intellectuals have given birth to a startling variety.

DEFINITION

Basically, a megastructure is defined as any single artificial structure that challenges human preconceptions of size. A modern city may not be considered a megastructure because it is composed of many smaller buildings. The Great Wall of China, however, could be considered one, because it is a single, unified structure.

RATIONALE

Megastructures require vast amounts of materials, capital, manpower, energy, and logistic planning to construct. The creation of some may take decades, centuries, or even many millennia. So why bother building one at all?

For a number of structures, form follows function. Some feats can’t be performed by anything except the very large. Space Elevators, for example, need to be tens of thousands of kilometers in length in order to propel cargoes into orbit. In order to trap all of the sun’s radiative energy, a structure as large as a Dyson Sphere is a necessity. The enormous expenditure of building such structures may be mitigated by the valuable services and resources they can provide.

Another reasons to construct one may be as simple as the need for living space. Interstellar travel may turn out to be impractical or impossible due of one circumstance or another, meaning humanity may be forever trapped within its own star system. Unless draconian measures of control are used, burgeoning growth will eventually out-strip the capacity of terrestrial worlds to support their populations. However, if a civilization were to convert all of the material in the system to the job of supporting life, by creating the vast habitable surface area of, say, a Ringworld or Dyson Sphere, the problem could be circumvented.

In some cases, as in Niven’s Ringworld and Malibu Comic’s Godwheel, larger megastructures may be used as enormous life and cultural laboratories. Specimens from many thousands of worlds can be held and studied in detail on the vast surface of the artifact. Sociological and biological experiments can be conducted on a grand scale without endangering the source stock on distant homeworlds.

A megastructure can also act as a means of preserving or protecting a culture from disasters or outside influence. In the novels Farthest Star and Wall Around a Star by Frederick Pohl and Jack Williamson, a Dyson Sphere is used as an intergalactic lifeboat to transport survivors away from an exploding galaxy. On a smaller scale, space-borne O’Neill Colonies could be used as refuges for cultures that wish to retain their ideological purity away from outside contact yet still remain self-sufficient. This was the case in an old tabletop RPG setting called High Colonies.

Perhaps the most significant reason to build a Megastructure is to simply prove that one can, to create some lasting and unforgettable monument to the power and ingenuity of its builders.

CHAPTER 2

TECH LEVELS

Tech Levels are a convenient abstract used to categorize technology according to relative complexity and sophistication. They are based on the idea that, looking back, history can be divided into distinct technological eras (stone age, bronze age, iron age, middle ages, renaissance, etc.) Each era can be considered rungs on a ladder, or a distinct level, that must be reached before the next one becomes possible.

In this work, we take that basic concept and project it into the future, anticipating distinct technological eras yet to come based on the cumulative best guesses of scientists, engineers, and various writers. Technological innovations are put on this numeric scale that represents when they first enter widespread use (i.e., out of the experimental and prototype phases.) The number represents a full era, past or future, and its accompanying overall level of development.

The tech level scale ranges from 1 to 25+, where 1 through 10 represents real historical eras and 11+ represents future ages. Categorizing innovations by tech levels is NOT a precise science and represents only best guesses as to when an innovation will come on-line. This will vary a great deal according to individual opinion, and the Tech Levels assigned in this book represents the author’s educated guesses only.

Also, this scale is by no means a smooth curve. Tech Level 2 represents a period of roughly 4500 years, while tech level 9 represents barely 1/100th that. Tech level 11 represents a mere 10 years, and the higher numbers (20+) represent leaps of many millennia. Each level represents a broad number of various innovations, and the scale only shoots up to the next level when a large number of breakthroughs significantly changes both society and the technological landscape as a whole.

For most innovations, especially near-future ones (Tech Levels 11 through 15), the author tries to be as conservative as reasonable in guessing when they may emerge, factoring both prevailing cultural and economic factors as well as technological ones. For example, even though it may be possible that some nation or agency will begin construction of full-scale space colonies within the next ten years, it will much more likely be many decades before a significant number of human beings move into space permanently to live. Thus Space Colonies have a tech level of 14+, an indication of many decades of advancement, as opposed to the ten-plus years into the future tech level 11 represents.

OVERVIEW

A brief breakdown of Tech Levels by grouping and what they mean follows:

Tech Level 0

This represents no technology.

Tech Level 1

This represents the slow climb of technology in Prehistory, from the time our pre-homo-sapiens ancestors first picked up a stick to dig for grubs until advancements in agriculture allowed for the formation of cities and recorded history.

Tech Levels 2-9

These represent actual historical eras (see chart)

Tech Level 10

This represents modern day Earth, today.

Tech Levels 11-15

These levels represent the near future, from tomorrow until about 100 years from now. Usual estimates for this period include steady refinements in electronic and computer technology, ever-increasing global connections and travel, the advent of base cybernetics and genetic engineering, and a slowly expanding human presence in space.

Tech Levels 16-20

This is the far future, representing up to 1000 or more years beyond Tech Level 15. These are the tech levels of most mainstream science fiction stories and tropes, such as starships, interstellar colonies, intelligent robots, death rays, alien contact, etc, etc.

Tech Levels 21-25

-- These levels represent the frontiers of the easily imaginable future, a great many thousands of years beyond today. Humankind opens up the secrets of the universe and creates ultra-sophisticated technology whose feats would seem to border on the magical to us today. Wormholes may connect distant parts of the galaxy. Black holes may be tapped for energy. Involuntary death may be unknown.

Tech Levels 26 and Beyond

Levels beyond 25 represent god-like technologies in power and scope. Cosmos-spanning networks, reality-altering machines, pocket universes, and more mind-boggling concepts inhabit these levels.

TECH LEVEL TABLE

0 No Tech

1 Prehistory, aka Stone Age (~5000 BC and Before)

2 Early City-States (5000 BC to 500 BC)

3 Iron Age (500 BC to AD 500)

4 Middle Ages (AD 500 to AD 1450)

5 Renaissance (AD 1450 to AD 1700)

6 Age of Reason (1700 to 1850)

7 Victorian Era (1850 to 1900)

8 The World Wars (1901 to 1945)

9 Cold War Era (1946 to 2000)

10 Modern-Day Earth (2001-present)

11 circa +10 years

12 circa +25 years

13 circa +50 years

14 circa +75 years

15 circa +100 years

16 Low Far Future Technology

20 High Far Future Technology

21 Low Ultra Technology

25 High Ultra Technology

26+ Miraculous, Magic-Like Technologies

See Appendix 2 for further notes on Tech Levels.

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PART 2

TERRESTRIAL MEGASTRUCTURES

These are megastructures that can be must be built on or anchored to the surface of Earth or other terrestrial worlds. Some may reach out into space, but all are dependent on having a solid planet under them.

CHAPTER 3

SUPERTALL SKYSCRAPERS

Tech Level: 10

When the subject of megastructures comes up in conversation, supertall skyscrapers are what most people first think of. When our civilization thinks big, we usually think of our tallest buildings, and the biggest of these are called supertall skyscrapers. ‘Supertall’ is an official architectural classification, applying to any skyscraper that reaches over 300 meters in height.

As of this writing, the tallest completed building in the world is the Burj Khalifa, located in the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. It stands 829 meters high (2722 feet) with 163 human-habitable floors. The tallest building currently under construction is the Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. When completed (estimated around 2019) it will stand 1000 meters tall (3280 feet) and house 167 habitable floors.

Just how tall can buildings get, using conventional construction techniques? As we'll see in chapters to come, some terrestrial megastructures can reach into space and beyond, but those use very specialized technology and physical principles. Using modern and near-future construction techniques, how far up can skyscrapers reach?

Engineers who worked on the construction of the Burj Khalifa have stated that the their buttressed core design could have reached up to a mile (1609 meters) or more. A newer design utilizing an open skeletal base, like that of the Eiffel Tower but scaled up immensely, could stretch up several times that.

Others estimate that buildings could eventually go to the height of tallest mountains, or about 8800 meters. Too much farther beyond that and mountains become so heavy that the rock and earth crumble under their weight. That may also eventually be come a consideration with ever-taller and more massive buildings.

Skyscrapers can be made of lighter and stronger material than rock and stone, and can utilize smarter designs, so its possible they can go even beyond that height limit. But how much further is up for debate.

There are limiting factors beyond just mere physics. As buildings get taller, their bases must also get wider to support the additional mass and ensure stability. Since skyscrapers are usually built within the confines of cities, and usually in busy business districts, the cost of the real estate needed can get quite costly. More, nearby neighborhoods may object to constantly living in the megabuildings' shadow and to the increased traffic and congestion it can bring. These factors are part of what scuttled the proposed X-Seed 4000 project from the 1990s, which would have been a 4000-meter tall 'hyperbuiding' sprawling across downtown Tokyo.

These sprawling bases could also limit potential returns on investment. Most supertall buildings make money by renting their interior spaces to various interests. The big draw of a supertall space is the view, so rooms and offices with