Megastructures Megastructures An Alderson disk (named after Dan Alderson, its originator) is an artificial astronomical megastructure, like Niven's Ringworld or a Dyson sphere. The disk is a giant platter, like a CD or phonograph record. The sun rests in the hole at the center of the disk. The radius of an Alderson disk would be roughly equivalent to the orbit of Mars or Jupiter, with a thickness of several thousand miles. According to the proposal, a sufficiently massive disk would have greater gravity than its sun (though the fact that the pull of the disk as a whole would still be toward its center causes problems with this idea). ...more on Wikipedia about "Alderson disk"
Writers in the fields of science speculation and fiction have created in their works several varieties of artificial worlds. ...more on Wikipedia about "Artificial world"
Astroengineering is the construction of megastructures in space by technologically advanced beings. It is a form of megascale engineering, but deals with structures that are "easily observable" from interstellar or even intergalactic distances with 20th century astronomical instruments: i.e. An orbital elevator is an example of megascale engineering, but it is not an example of astroengineering. Typically proposed feats of astroengineering are on the scale to remake an entire stellar system. ...more on Wikipedia about "Astroengineering"
In George Lucas' Star Wars saga, Centerpoint Station is an ancient space station that was capable of moving entire planets with its tractor beams and eons ago was used to move the planets Corellia, Drall, Selonia and possibly Talus and Tralus to their current location. The station sits at a lagrange point between the two worlds. ...more on Wikipedia about "Centerpoint Station"
Coruscant (pronounced / /) is the name of a fictional planet in the Star Wars universe. An ecumenopolis, it was renamed Imperial Center during the reign of the Galactic Empire and Yuuzhan'tar during the Yuuzhan Vong Invasion. The adjective form of the planet name is Coruscanti. ...more on Wikipedia about "Coruscant"
The Death Star is a giant military space station in the fictional Star Wars universe. ...more on Wikipedia about "Death Star"
A Dyson sphere (or "shell" as it appeared in the original paper) is a hypothetical megastructure. It was originally described as a system of orbiting solar power satellites meant to completely englobe a star and capture its entire energy output, although other variants on this idea have been proposed — most notedly the solid shell concept pictured at right. The Dyson sphere concept was first mentioned in the novel Star Maker, by Olaf Stapledon, and formally described by physicist Freeman Dyson in his 1959 paper "Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infra-Red Radiation", published in the journal Science. While building a Dyson sphere is far beyond present-day industrial capabilities, some proposed design variants of the sphere do not require technology much in advance of our own. ...more on Wikipedia about "Dyson sphere" Inform your friends about shortopedia
* Star Maker, by Olaf Stapledon — The novel which inspired Freeman Dyson to propose the concept of the Dyson sphere! ...more on Wikipedia about "Dyson spheres in fiction"
Ecumenopolis (from Greek: world city) is a word invented in 1967 by the Greek city planner Constantinos Doxiadis to represent the idea that in the future the urban areas and megalopolises would eventually fuse and there would be a single continuous world-wide city as a progression from the current urbanization and population growth trends. ...more on Wikipedia about "Ecumenopolis"
The Global highway is a proposed network of currently existing and yet-to-be constructed roads and bridges that would connect the American continents to Asia, Europe and Africa, incorporating over one hundred nations. ...more on Wikipedia about "Global highway"
Globus Cassus is a utopian project for the transformation of Planet Earth into a much bigger, hollow, artificial world with an ecosphere on its inner surface. Sunlight would enter through two large windows, gravity would be provided by centrifugal force. Humans would live on two vast regions that face each other and that are connected through the empty center. ...more on Wikipedia about "Globus Cassus"
Halos are fictional megastructures in the Halo video game series. ...more on Wikipedia about "Halo (megastructure)"
A Jupiter Brain is a theoretical computing megastructure the size of a planet. Unlike a Matrioshka Brain, a Jupiter Brain is optimized for minimum signal propagation delay, and so has a compact structure. Power generation and heat dissipation are formidable concerns for a Jupiter Brain implementation. ...more on Wikipedia about "Jupiter Brain"
The lunar space elevator (also called a moonstalk) is an analog to the better known space elevator idea (a cable suspended above the Earth, with its center of gravity in geostationary orbit). It would instead be constructed with its center of gravity in a stationary position above the surface of the Moon, providing a controlled means to transport people and/or materials between the surface and lunar orbit. ...more on Wikipedia about "Lunar space elevator"
A Matrioshka Brain is a hypothetical megastructure, based on the Dyson sphere, of immense computational capacity. It is an example of a Class B stellar engine, employing the entire energy output of a star to drive computer systems. ...more on Wikipedia about "Matrioshka Brain"
Mega-City One is a huge fictional city covering much of what is now the Eastern United States in the Judge Dredd comic book series. The exact boundaries of the city depend on which artist has drawn the story. ...more on Wikipedia about "Mega-City One"
Megascale engineering is a type of engineering (currently a form of exploratory engineering) concerned with the construction of structures on an enormous scale. Typically these structures are at least 1,000 kilometers in length -- in other words, at least 1 Megameter, hence the name. Such large-scale structures are termed megastructures. ...more on Wikipedia about "Megascale engineering"
In science fiction and speculative (or exploratory) engineering, a megastructure is a self-supporting artificial construct whose largest dimension equals or exceeds 1 megameter (1,000 kilometers). Such artifacts are the products of megascale engineering, or astroengineering. Megastructures often play a part in the plot or setting of science fiction movies and books. ...more on Wikipedia about "Megastructure"
Nar Shaddaa is the largest moon that orbits the planet of Nal Hutta in the fictional Star Wars Expanded Universe. It is the largest moon in the vicinity. ...more on Wikipedia about "Nar Shaddaa"
The O'Neill cylinder is a space habitat design proposed by Gerard K. O'Neill in his book The High Frontier. O'Neill was a physicist at Princeton. In 1969 he taught undergraduate physics. Dr. O'Neill decided to teach by having students design large structures in space. To the surprise of everyone, several designs appeared that used ordinary materials (steel and glass), and could provide large areas suitable for human habitation. This cooperative result was first published by O'Neill in a 1974 article in Physics Today. ...more on Wikipedia about "O'Neill cylinder"
In Iain M. Banks' fictional Culture universe, an Orbital is a purpose-built space habitat. ...more on Wikipedia about "Orbital (space habitat)"
Rama II is a novel by Gentry Lee and Arthur C. Clarke first published in 1989. It recounts humankind's further interaction with the Ramans, first introduced in Rendezvous with Rama. Written primarily by Gentry Lee, Rama II has a dramatically different writing style than the original, resulting in a more character driven narrative and far less speculative (i.e. "futuristic") mindset, ambience and human relations. Readers are advised to align their expectations accordingly. ...more on Wikipedia about "Rama II"
Ringworld is a Hugo and Nebula award-winning 1970 science fiction novel by Larry Niven, set in his Known Space universe. The work is widely considered one of the classics of science fiction literature. It is followed by three sequels, and it ties in to numerous other books in the Known Space universe. ...more on Wikipedia about "Ringworld"
A Shadow Planet Killer is a fictional machine from the Babylon 5 television show and films, which was used to destroy planetary ecosystems. ...more on Wikipedia about "Shadow Planet Killer"
A skyhook is a hypothetical structure used for transporting material to and from a planet's surface into orbit. The largest and perhaps simplest of these is the space elevator, a cable that runs all the way from the planet's surface to beyond geosynchronous orbit. Smaller skyhooks include hypersonic skyhooks, rotating cables in lower orbits whose ends dip repeatedly down close to the planet's surface to snag payloads and lift them up. Large rotating tethers can also be used far from a planet's surface to transfer momentum to and from payloads, changing their orbits without the expenditure of reaction mass. ...more on Wikipedia about "Skyhook (structure)" It's real shortopedia feeling!
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