Stellar Engineering

Title
Copyright
Contents
Dedication
Preface
Foreword by Les Johnson
Acknowledgments
About the Author and Artist
Introduction. Why stellar engineering?
	Potential applications
	The scales of space and time: Is ET building space constructs?
	Origin of the concept
	Have we found one?
	Further reading
1. Thinking big
	The largest organism on Earth
	The slime mold amoeba—ambitious actions, small minds
	The termite and its mound
	Megaliths: Neolithic human megastructures
	Egypt’s pyramids: Megastructures of the Bronze Age
	China’s Great Wall and the Age of Iron
	Cathedrals—giant constructs of the Middle Ages
	Conclusions
	Further reading
2. If we can do it: Olaf and the star shell
	Olaf Stapledon: The man and the author
	Stapledon, the tidal hypothesis, and his views on the rarity of cosmic life
	A short synopsis of Star Maker
	Scientific/technological predictions of Star Maker
		Nuclear power
		Direct mind-to-mind communication
		Galactic and universal minds
		Genetic life form modification
		Cosmic impacts
		Worldships and space habitats
		The Big Bang and multiverse
	Conclusions: Olaf Stapledon and stellar megastructures
	Further reading
3. Freeman gets in the act
	A stellar but gentle career
	Dyson on global warming and nuclear winter
	Genetic engineering and biotechnology
	Into the galaxy?
	Stellar shells
		Major star shell Issue 1: Where does all the stuff come from?
		Major star shell Issue 2: Are Dyson/Stapledon spheres stable?
		Minor star shell Issue 3: Might the population drift off?
		Minor star shell Issue 4: Might atmosphere and oceans drift away?
		Minor star shell Issue 5: What about micrometeorites, comets, etc.?
		Minor star shell Issue 6: Can cosmic radiation be controlled?
	Stellar swarms
	Further reading
4. Kardashev speaks: ET and stellar energy
	A life for the stars
	The Kardashev Scale
	Becoming a Type I civilization: Some guidelines
	Becoming a Type II civilization: Some possibilities
	Creating Kardaschev Type III and IV civilizations
	Conclusions
	Further reading
5. Ring around a star
	Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) and stellar engineering
		Against the Fall of Night and The City and the Stars
		The Fountains of Paradise
		The Sentinel, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and its sequels
		Rama: A visiting world ship
	Larry Niven’s Ringworld
	A mobile Ringworld
		Technical Issue 1: Will the bowl hold together?
		Technical Issue 2: Does the star radiate enough energy?
	A more feasible version of Ringworld (hold the Scrith!)
	Not-so-benign stellar engineering
	Further reading
6. Fermi’s Paradox: An ill Omen?
	Enrico and his paradox
	Frank Drake and his equation
	Some possible answers to Fermi
		1. They all self-destruct
		2. Natural catastrophes
		3. Berserkers
		4. Everybody listens, nobody transmits
		5. Maybe we are the first
		6. The cosmic zoo
		7. Different modes of future evolution
		8. Maybe they are here and do not wish to be found
	Further reading
7. Exoplanets: An expanding search
	Humanity’s cosmic home: Our solar system
	Detecting exoplanets
		Radial velocity searches
		Application of astrometry
		Microlensing: An effect from general relativity
		The transit technique
		Direct imaging
	Progress to date and a few interesting planetary systems
		Kepler-62 and its planets
		The Trappist-1 planetary system
		Proxima Centauri: Our nearest stellar neighbor and its planet
	Further reading
8. The most interesting star in the galaxy
	The technique
	The spacecraft
	Citizen scientists
	The star
	The light curve of KIC 8462852
	Competing hypotheses
		Might it be a comet swarm?
		How about a natural star-sized object eclipsing the star?
		Is KIC 8462852 a dying star?
		Could it be the result of instrument malfunction?
		Is a circumstellar dust cloud a leading contender?
		Is an alien megastructure a plausible contender?
	Continuing research
	Further reading
	Update 1: January 4, 2018
	Update 2: March 15, 2018
Chapter 9. Other searches, other stars
	Infrared and stellar shells
	The Infrared Astronomy Satellite
	Searches for partial star shells using the Infrared Astronomy Satellite
		An infrared–microwave search for megastructures by a Russian astronomer
		A search for megastructures by two Japanese researchers (Part 1)
		A search for megastructures by two Japanese researchers (Part 2)
		An infrared astronomy satellite–based U.S. search that puts an upper limit on Dyson/Stapledon spheres
	Other Kepler stars of interest
	Other instruments that could be applied to the search
		The Hubble Space Telescope
		The Spitzer Space Telescope
		The Wide Field Infrared Explorer
		The James Webb Space Telescope
	Further reading
10. Steps toward star shells
	The space tether
		Gemini 11: Tethers and artificial gravity
		A tether test from a Space Shuttle
		Tether missions flown on robotic spacecraft
		By Jupiter!
		A one-dimensional megastructure
	Solar-photon sails: Two-dimensional megastructures?
	A heavenly elevator
	Further reading
11. The zone of life
	Classical habitable zones: Earth analogs are required
	Classical habitable zones: Only Sun-like stars need apply
	The habitable zone expands: The new solar system
		Venus’s atmosphere: A big surprise
		Mars: Everybody’s favorite rock
		Europa: Another water world in our solar system
		Titan: A moon with atmosphere
		The geysers of Enceladus
	Conclusions
	Further reading
12. How stars evolve
	Our stable Sun
	The life cycle of a star
	Stellar size and life expectancy
	Stellar surface temperatures
	Stellar spectral classes
	Putting it all together in the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram
	Stellar evolution on the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram
	Where in this stellar zoo might we search for megastructures?
	Further reading
13. Architects, migrants, and artists
	Population and energy
	Migrating planets
		Small-body fly-bys
		Planet migration using a solar-photon sail
		Moving the Earth by moving the Moon
	Migrating stars
	To lift a star
		Star mining
		A longer lived star
		Smarter stars
	Beacons
		Active beacons
		Passive beacons
	Further reading
14. To cool the Earth
	The reality of climate change
	The Mont Blanc glacier
	Some geoengineering possibilities
		Altering Earth’s albedo
		Geological carbon sequestration
		Industrial solutions: Can we commercialize carbon dioxide?
		Local biosphere modification
	The L1 orbital sunshade: A small step toward megastructures
	Further reading
15. Are they here?
	Close stellar approaches: How frequent are they?
	Introducing the Kuiper belt
	Alien habitats in the Kuiper belt?
	Detecting alien habitats in the Kuiper belt
		Bolometric apparent magnitude of a Kuiper belt habitat
		Detecting lights on Kuiper belt space cities
		Searching for infrared emissions from artificial, inhabited Kuiper belt objects
	Kuiper belt space probes
		New Horizons
		A possible future mission
	An appreciation of deep time
	Conclusions
	Further reading
Appendices
	Appendix 1: Prefixes
	Appendix 2: Scientific notation
	Appendix 3: Units and conversions
	Appendix 4: Some physical constants
	Appendix 5: Some physics quantities and equations
	Appendix 6: The electromagnetic spectrum
Index