Freeman Dyson has passed at 96

[StarCruiser]

One of the greatest "free thinkers" of all time has finally passed:

https://www.popsci.com/story/science/freeman-dyson-obituary/

 

[Santaman]

Sad to hear, RIP Mr Dyson.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Best damn vacuums ever


I kid...I kid. But we need to get to work on this thing


I wonder if you could inundate the orbital sphere with some kind of material that solar radiation would then "cure", like concrete, in order to get the outer shell done quickly.

 

[publiusr]

You can make them smaller
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2013/08/statites-close-to-sun.html

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Dyson's original conceptualisation was of a swarm of solar collectors - not a solid shell. He expected the resultant dimming and transits of the parent star would signal the presence of an advanced civilisation. The swarm would radiate in the infra-red as an object several AU across should the star's radiation be completely occluded.

 

[Ronald Held]

RIP!

 

[Owain Taggart]

My Dad's had a business of making telescopes and selling them all over the world. One year, we got a call from his Son who wanted to buy one, I believe for his Dad. That would have been over 20 years ago.

 

[E-DUB]

The "Dyson Sphere" concept was used extensively in SF as this article indicates. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_spheres_in_popular_culture Dyson also postulated use of fission bombs as a source of propulsion for spacecraft, a concept dubbed "Orion".