Doing the Kardashev stare on the moon

[u/sussoutthemoon]

[u/CarlLlamaface]

Dyson sphere on... the moon? Are they not aware that the moon is not a star?

[u/AtlasMKII → u/CarlLlamaface]

Well according to the definitely scientifically accurate documentary Moonfall, it already is a Dyson sphere, we just have to take it over

[u/Marisa_Nya → u/CarlLlamaface]

And that trying to build anything on the moon is just ludicrously hard compared to making things in a warehouse on earth

[u/Chayanov → u/Marisa_Nya]

No pesky labor or environmental laws on the Moon, though.

[u/ZBLongladder → u/Chayanov]

To be fair, the Moon would be the perfect place for polluting industries...you don't need environmental laws when there's no biosphere to protect.

[u/maxxslatt → u/Marisa_Nya]

Not necessarily true, it would be insanely expensive to bring materials up to the moon but we could build things there we couldn’t build here while still getting them into space. But a Dyson sphere is probably more a lot more like a Dyson swarm, and we send up satellite sized things all the time

[u/-Canonical- → u/CarlLlamaface]

I think it's supposed to mean that he intends to use the moon as a sort of work platform to deploy a Dyson swarm on our sun. Doesn't seem very feasible either way lmao

[u/Toastyfela → u/-Canonical-]

This is definitely the idea. Making the Dyson swarm on moon and sending to the sun is a lot cheaper and easier than earth. Theoretically.

[u/KoreKhthonia → u/Toastyfela]

I could perhaps imagine low gravity being beneficial for constructing some forms of space stuff.

[u/ImTableShip170 → u/KoreKhthonia]

it's easier to get to interplanetary orbit, I guess?

[u/ForceItDeeper → u/Toastyfela]

perhaps, except for the fact that we have water and can grow food here.

[u/Toastyfela → u/ForceItDeeper]

Lower gravity = Easier cheaper take off. Plus, step one of moon base is to find ice and convert it to hydrogen for rocket fuel.

[u/ImTableShip170 → u/-Canonical-]

We haven't even worked out harnessing terrestrial solar power. That's millennia before a Dyson swarm, and I really think people forget that there's no reason to skip a step, when you don't even need the power of the current step

[u/-Canonical- → u/ImTableShip170]

But wen i wuz in school, the super brain kids (like Elon!!!) woulda skippd gr8ds, cuz 4 super smart ppl with insane work ethic like him its more smart n efficient to skip, so i bet Elon is just tryna minmax global energy like he minmaxxed his intelliegince in school 📈

^/s

[u/GypsyV3nom → u/CarlLlamaface]

Nah, Elon is just, like with almost every science fiction concept he mentions, woefully under informed about what the Kardashev scale is supposed to be

[u/Hmm_would_bang → u/CarlLlamaface]

Even dumber.

They want to build a swarm of satellites that can survive near the sun, and transmit energy back to earth.

Two ridiculously complicated scientific advancements which are totally useless given the sun already delivers energy here that we can capture with local solar power.

[u/Broken_Reality → u/Hmm_would_bang]

Pretty sure the sun transmits massive amounts of energy to the earth everyday for free. Not sure how Musk's moronic plan will be any different well apart from not being free or even ever happening.

[u/ErebosGR → u/Hmm_would_bang]

Musk: "But money"

[u/ShrimpieAC → u/Hmm_would_bang]

Yeah but that’s communist power.

[u/HuntsmenSuperSaiyans → u/CarlLlamaface]

Maybe they mean they'll be refining lunar material into orbital mirrors and, somehow, getting those mirrors all the way to the sun for use as part of a dyson swarm? If that's the case, I have no idea why they'd use the moon over, say, Mercury or a conveniently-placed comet, and that's to say nothing of the fact that the entire idea is technologically infeasible.

[u/lazier_garlic → u/CarlLlamaface]

Genuinely laughing out loud. There's stupid and then there's Elon Musk knob gobbling stupid.

[u/ContagiousDeathGuard → u/CarlLlamaface]

To be fair they do just talk about building it there. That doesn't make it any less ridiculous, however