We've talked about Ringworlds and Dyson Spheres in years past, but did anyone ever actually stat one of these behemoths?
Just curious.
Just curious.
Ring Worlds and Dyson Spheres revisited.
- Thread starter Blue Ghost
- Start date
There is a ringworld written up in the Paranoia Press Beyond sector book . Well, there is a paragraph about it, and some extensions to the UWP to explain it.
Challenge magazine issue 39, Hinterworlds has a brief paragraph about a partial rinworld, but few stats.
GT: AR3 has a description of a partial Dyson Sphere.
Those are the one's I know about.
Yeah, I remember the GT one. Interesting.
IIRC, Paranoia Press Vanguard Reaches has a Dyson Sphere World (Varen's Planet), but I believe it is of the "many capsules" type, not a rigid sphere.
The many satellites version of the Dyson sphere is know as a Dyson Swarm. It is a much more plausible version. There is a description of the orbits required to make this work. Also the page requires a java applet to show the orbits, which I can no longer see, but do remember this, and it was very cool.
Interesting. I did not know what a Dyson Swarm was. Very very interesting. This video shows some examples of a Dyson Sphere, and explains a swarm;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne4LsLPf1Ro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne4LsLPf1Ro
I've started to stat out a "Neptune Ring" - one that is big enough to encircle a small gas giant.
Location
Situated around an outer-orbit small gas giant means fuel is plentiful. The outsystem makes a great place to receive incoming Hop ships. Stray objects, such as Pluto, can be handled well before they become problems -- see Technology further on.
Dimensions
At 100D around Neptune, its radius would be 2.5 million km.
Its width is the same as the equator of a Size 5 world: about 25 terrain hexes, or 25,000 km.
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(ASSUME ring width is typically = Diameter / 200 (Niven: D = appx 200M, W = 1M). A Neptune ring's diameter at 100D is 100 x Neptune's diameter (50,000 km) = 5,000,000 km. W = 25,000 km. 1000 km per hex = 25 hexes.)
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Its "length"/circumference is about 15 million km (about 15,000 terrain hexes).
I presume its rim wall height would be several hundred km. Call it 500 km.
Assuming it was made of TL27 starship hull and whatever protections are available to TL27 hulls, then it would displace about the same volume as a box 2.5 x 10^4 km x 5 x 10^2 km and 1.5 x 10^7 km long, or 1.875 x 10^14 tons. 187 trillion tons. Not A Starship.
It has the surface area of about 25 Earths.
It completes one full rotation every 27.8 hours, providing a 1G "gravity". Its tangential velocity is 560,000 km/hr.
Technology
It would be constructed at TL27. At TL27, artificial lighting is no problem, and neither is stability, orbit correction, and defense (jump inducers, tractor/pressors, disintegrators, and more magical things). Large bodies with irregular orbits can be man-handled ahead of time.
Note that at TL27 teleportation has made co-location unnecessary; therefore, buildings will be scattered and only lightly clustered, if at all. The most prominent clusters might be at shipyards, and even then it may just be a single large building, with feeder buildings located wherever is most convenient -- somewhere on the rim, perhaps.
UWP
I'm statting this out as a new, finished, and working structure. The starport is 'A'. "Size" is nearly meaningless in this context, so the size code 'Y' is used to indicate something really big. Assuming a standard atmosphere and half water is not unreasonable. The population can be just about anything; making it a 9 won't raise any eyebrows. We already know that there won't be any cities in the current sense of the word, due to teleportation.
The government might be 6 (colony), but might be just about anything. Let's call it a Feudal Technocracy, just for fun. The government of the ringworld itself has nothing to do with the Ancient who built, owns, and controls it. Similarly Law Level. Call it a 4, as well, for no particular reason.
TL is 27 ("T"). The thing might have a base, but I'll leave it out for now. Finally, an additional indicator code should be added to mark the listing as unusual, probably a megastructure, and requiring library data to explain. I call that code 'Ax'. Thus the ringworld's UWP is:
Mapping
A 35-hex segment fits nicely on a sheet of paper. About 430 of those would be needed to map out the ring to 1000 km terrain hexes. A good exercise for a computer program. Alternately, sixteen "geomorphic" segments can be recombined in various ways to simulate varying terrain (after all, one segment 35 x 25 hexes represents over a thousand Texas-sized regions...)
An even more abstract mapping system would be to take a Size 5 world, slice out its equatorial section, and determine the terrain type for an entire triangle -- which represents the surface area of the North America, roughly. Highly abstract, but gets the point across. Then, drill down for (very) specific sites for adventures.
Scenarios / Adventures
1. Large bodies with irregular orbits, such as Pluto, and stray objects such as rogue moons or comets, can be man-handled ahead of time, as soon as they are detected. Your team are designated "foreign object troubleshooters", and over their twenty-year career will have to take care of a Pluto, a comet, and a suspicious exo-planetoid.
2. A ringworld is being constructed in a Deep Space hex. Your team are designated "site installation experts", and over their twenty-year career will have to scout out an appropriate system with an appropriate SGG, smoke out any sophonts or competitors in the system, adjust the SGG ("pre-installation check" -- deploy satellites, kill or claim its moons, sweep the rings up, touch-up its orbit, etc), build the jump harness onto the finished ring, transport the ring precisely around the SGG, normalize its orbital position, start repairs on the ensuing damage, de-install the jump harness, fire up the normal operational systems and start up the defense screen.
Location
Situated around an outer-orbit small gas giant means fuel is plentiful. The outsystem makes a great place to receive incoming Hop ships. Stray objects, such as Pluto, can be handled well before they become problems -- see Technology further on.
Dimensions
At 100D around Neptune, its radius would be 2.5 million km.
Its width is the same as the equator of a Size 5 world: about 25 terrain hexes, or 25,000 km.
[FONT=arial,helvetica]
(ASSUME ring width is typically = Diameter / 200 (Niven: D = appx 200M, W = 1M). A Neptune ring's diameter at 100D is 100 x Neptune's diameter (50,000 km) = 5,000,000 km. W = 25,000 km. 1000 km per hex = 25 hexes.)
[/FONT]
Its "length"/circumference is about 15 million km (about 15,000 terrain hexes).
I presume its rim wall height would be several hundred km. Call it 500 km.
Assuming it was made of TL27 starship hull and whatever protections are available to TL27 hulls, then it would displace about the same volume as a box 2.5 x 10^4 km x 5 x 10^2 km and 1.5 x 10^7 km long, or 1.875 x 10^14 tons. 187 trillion tons. Not A Starship.
It has the surface area of about 25 Earths.
It completes one full rotation every 27.8 hours, providing a 1G "gravity". Its tangential velocity is 560,000 km/hr.
Technology
It would be constructed at TL27. At TL27, artificial lighting is no problem, and neither is stability, orbit correction, and defense (jump inducers, tractor/pressors, disintegrators, and more magical things). Large bodies with irregular orbits can be man-handled ahead of time.
Note that at TL27 teleportation has made co-location unnecessary; therefore, buildings will be scattered and only lightly clustered, if at all. The most prominent clusters might be at shipyards, and even then it may just be a single large building, with feeder buildings located wherever is most convenient -- somewhere on the rim, perhaps.
UWP
I'm statting this out as a new, finished, and working structure. The starport is 'A'. "Size" is nearly meaningless in this context, so the size code 'Y' is used to indicate something really big. Assuming a standard atmosphere and half water is not unreasonable. The population can be just about anything; making it a 9 won't raise any eyebrows. We already know that there won't be any cities in the current sense of the word, due to teleportation.
The government might be 6 (colony), but might be just about anything. Let's call it a Feudal Technocracy, just for fun. The government of the ringworld itself has nothing to do with the Ancient who built, owns, and controls it. Similarly Law Level. Call it a 4, as well, for no particular reason.
TL is 27 ("T"). The thing might have a base, but I'll leave it out for now. Finally, an additional indicator code should be added to mark the listing as unusual, probably a megastructure, and requiring library data to explain. I call that code 'Ax'. Thus the ringworld's UWP is:
Code:
Neptune Ring AY65954-T Ax Hi PrA 35-hex segment fits nicely on a sheet of paper. About 430 of those would be needed to map out the ring to 1000 km terrain hexes. A good exercise for a computer program. Alternately, sixteen "geomorphic" segments can be recombined in various ways to simulate varying terrain (after all, one segment 35 x 25 hexes represents over a thousand Texas-sized regions...)
An even more abstract mapping system would be to take a Size 5 world, slice out its equatorial section, and determine the terrain type for an entire triangle -- which represents the surface area of the North America, roughly. Highly abstract, but gets the point across. Then, drill down for (very) specific sites for adventures.
Scenarios / Adventures
1. Large bodies with irregular orbits, such as Pluto, and stray objects such as rogue moons or comets, can be man-handled ahead of time, as soon as they are detected. Your team are designated "foreign object troubleshooters", and over their twenty-year career will have to take care of a Pluto, a comet, and a suspicious exo-planetoid.
2. A ringworld is being constructed in a Deep Space hex. Your team are designated "site installation experts", and over their twenty-year career will have to scout out an appropriate system with an appropriate SGG, smoke out any sophonts or competitors in the system, adjust the SGG ("pre-installation check" -- deploy satellites, kill or claim its moons, sweep the rings up, touch-up its orbit, etc), build the jump harness onto the finished ring, transport the ring precisely around the SGG, normalize its orbital position, start repairs on the ensuing damage, de-install the jump harness, fire up the normal operational systems and start up the defense screen.
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Alternatively, assume it is 90% "ocean" and reduce the maps to "only" about 40 sheets of paper...
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Vanguard Reaches Sphereworld
There is also apparently a "Small" Sphereworld in the Vanguard Reaches named "Varen's Planet". (although the stats given imply it is perhaps a "many-capsule" version, or otherwise something sub-planetary in size).
There is also apparently a "Small" Sphereworld in the Vanguard Reaches named "Varen's Planet". (although the stats given imply it is perhaps a "many-capsule" version, or otherwise something sub-planetary in size).
Dolphins heartily approve this plan. What Tech Level would a 10,000 km diameter 318 km width "Halo" ring be? For that matter an interesting ringworld might be one in geostationary height above a populated world, perhaps even connected by space elevators at the equator. Now if only I could paint that scene.
I'm afraid 83,000,000 miles is not the equivalent to 299,339,800 km...
83,000,000 miles would be about 133,575,552 km or (if nautical miles) 153,716,000 km (a little more than 1 AU),
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
I think he may have missed the 1 at the start - 186000000miles is pretty close to 299000000km.
"That's no moon..."
I don't know, and I think that's a very good question. I suppose there are several parameters involved.
kilemall
SOC-14 5K
Damn dolphins. You let them become brokers, they WILL screw up your stock market.
I went ahead and updated the Varen's World entry:
[http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Varen's_Planet_(world)) ]
Hope that helps.
Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.
Just two side questions about ringworlds:
As I understand them, the simulated gravity comes from the rotation of the ring. As there's not true gravity:
As I understand them, the simulated gravity comes from the rotation of the ring. As there's not true gravity:
- Several Traveller sources tell thet gravitics work by interacting with gravitons, those being absent in this centripetal force siumlated gravity, do gravitics work on them?
- Which is the safe jump distance (the 100 diameter equivalent) in such worlds? Gavity being simulated, there's no true gravity well for them...
I would assume that gravitics do not work well on them. The ring is a massive structure, tho', so it has some mass and thus some gravity.
As for jump... ships (per t5) cast jump shadows, so... 100x the cross-section.
So, for example, a closed ring, 1AU in diameter, 1000km wide and 2km tall would cause a torroid 100,000km by 200km, with a 1 AU diameter. As in, not bloody much of one, but just enough to be a potential story bit.
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