Celestia Forums

Hello everybody.
I am working on a miniature dyson sphere which orbits a planet.
I've got it mostly working except for the atmosphere, which is inside.
When I put it around the center star, if I make it big enough to appear to float above the surface, it turns out all chunky.

Anybody have any suggestions?

That does look interesting.
A couple of questions;

A dyson sphere normally encircles a star. Here you have it in orbit around a planet; does that mean that the star in the centre is a tiny, artificial one?
That is a good idea.

Second, how do the people inside the sphere avoid floating around? As you may know gravity inside a sphere is zero. If your artificial star has any mass at all the inhabitants will fall towards it. Presumably you have gravity generators of some sort lining the sphere.

You could try making the atmosphere smoother (in Anim8tor that is just a matter of subdividing faces). But if that is no good, how abourt superimposing several slightly transparent spheres, each with a slightly different RotationOffset or MeanAnomaly. That won't get rid of the chunkyness, but it might make it less apparent.

eburacum45.

As for question 1, yes, there is an artificial star at it's core. I have yet to incorporate an energy collector/sunshade orbiting the tiny nuclear fusion core inside, so it is perpetual daylight right now.

As for question 2, the sphere spins fast enough for centrifugal force to hold people to the ground.

The sphere is about 75% as big as Earth's moon, and and has solar panels lining the equator on the outside.

Also, thank you for the advice, I think a sphere for the clouds might work.

If the sphere uses centrifugal force, it sounds quite similar to a Bernal Sphere in concept. Rthorvald has made a nice model of such an object; have you seen it?

However the problem I have with centrifugal force in a spherical habitat concerns not only the spinning Dyson sphere, but also the Bernal sphere as well. The rotation only gives artificial gravity at right angles to the axis of rotation- this means that a lot of the sphere's inside surface is too steeply inclined to be habitable. To maximise the living surface per unit mass, a rotating habitat should be cylindrical- either a long cylinder or a short ring.

eburacum45,
Concerning centrifugal force.
I realize that the shape of the object makes a large part of the habitat unsuitable for human life, however the area is not entirely unusable, in this scenario it is used for agriculture. Also this structure serves a dual purpose,
It acts like the moon to stabilize it's parent-planet's rotation and tides.