NationStates Jolt Archive

It was a rather interesting fact that Johannes Kepler Stegner would follow in the footsteps of his namesake so directly. As he sat hunched over a book of Kepler's Laws and glancing up at the preliminary hologram of the structures design he knew that he would have made Kepler proud. At a first glance the hologram would appear more like an eighth graders geometry project than what was arguably the greatest undertaking in human history. Currently esitmated at over 16 AUs across at its widest point, the structure would cost, literally, quadrillions of dollars and years of hard labor in unpredicable conditions near a star where humans had yet to set foot, YTS 6465-7800313.

Stegner was amazed at what Kepler had done so many years ago. He had devised the concept that the six known planets at the time (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) had orbits that would be perfectly predicted if one would nestle the five Platonic Solids (polyhedron whose faces are identical regular polygons) inside each other. Unfortunately for Kepler, his ideas did not stand the test of observation and science, and even in modern day one would read of his fascination in history books, not science books.

This would be Stegners task, to build a quasi-rigid structure, one of the largest ever conceived, and fit Kepler's description. Every day the archictural obstacles seemed to grow more daunting and numerous. However, he was to succeed no matter what the cost. To others such a structure may seem impractical, but Stegner understood why he was to construct this: creating physical structures in space is a devotional duty, the very existence of the universe itself is defined by the structure of matter within it.

Glancing up at his design he knew he was getting close. He only had to recalculate appropriate sizes. Then finally, he had it. The first shell was an octahedron at about .234 AU distance. The second shell (icosahedron) at about .702 AU The third shell (a dodecahedron) at 2.106 AU. Each shell has a fractal configuration - a honeycombing of triangles in the Octahedron, hexagons in the Icosahedron. It was truely a peice of art. The fourth shell (Tetrahedron) was measured at 6.318 AU. The largest and final layer, a giant cube, a distance of 18.954 AU!

Smiling to himself slightly, he rechecked his math, almost hesitantly. So badly wanting to be right and so fearful of being wrong. As the last of his calculations came out a computer animation began immediately. It worked! The structure, if built exactly as the designs showed would hold its shape and follow a perfectly predicible orbit. Collecting all of his work files he attatched them to a transmission and sent them immediately to the Cheif Largentian Structural Engineer Ndeya Kiyoshi. Stretching his tired limbs a wave of excitement rushed over him as he though about what was being set in motion.

Offices of Ndeya Kiyoshi, Earth

The scene was far different from Stegner's private offices. There were quite literally hundreds of workers running around in a frenzy, trying desperately to meet deadlines. On the second floor, watching the whole ordeal from behind his tinted windows was Ndeya Kiyoshi. There were at least fifty projects being run simultaneously, each being errected on any one of five planets and their moons. It was a regular day by their standards; however, that would soon change.

Kiyoshi was deep in thought when he was disrupted by an obnoxious beeping. Pushing a button on his remote control a holographic transmission began playing. At a first glance it almost looked like a practical joke. But, then, measurements, calculations, computer simualtions began playing. He suddenly forgot whatever it was that had been so important to him moments ago as he awaited for the coordinates of the location of this project. When they displayed he dropped his remote. It was Szentmartoni, the mega structure that over a trillion people could soon inhabit. This structure would use 100% of all the solar energy from the sun and would have every single habitat found anywhere in the universe from a tropical rainforest to a frozen tundra.

Picking up his remote he pushed another button and the transmission was replayed on an enormous screen visible from anywhere in the building. It was a very rare occurance that anything be displayed on that screen. It meant that every worker stop his own work and begin reviewing whatever files Kiyoski wished.

So when the file began playing, the offices fell silent followed by a sharp gasp, then cheers. The preliminary plans had been in the works for over a year and finally they had arrived. With a renewed vigor the massive job was started.

Back in his offices Kiyoshi has a message to send. A structure this large was not meant for Largentians, it was meant for trillions of people, aliens, whatever. So, a public announcement of this structure's construction would have to be made to the international community...

>>>Open Transmission<<<
>>>Standard Diplomatic Link<<<
{From: Largentian Corp of Engineers, Cheif Structural Engineer Ndeya Kiyoshi}
{To: Any and all}

The Largentian Corp of Engineers is proud to announce the comletion of the first sages in the construction of one of the largest megastructures in history. Szentmartoni (http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/bilder/kepleria2.jpg) will be an enormous Class II Dyson structure with a star at its center, capable of acting as a home to trillions beings, human or non-human fulfilling any role from civilian to military and will sit on the edge of explored space.

This is a treasure that must be shared with all the world. For this reason we invite any and all who wish to aid us in the construction of this structure and inhabiting of it to do so. If any nation does aid in construction a part of the structure will be theirs for free, other wise they may rent some for a small price.

~Ndeya Kiyoshi, Cheif Structural Engineer
Largentian Corp of Engineers

>>>Close Transmission<<<

It took almost three days for every cargo ship to make the jump from Ah'reemi Deep at Mars to the Type A star, YTS 6465-7800313. Nearly ten thousand freighters and an equal number of transports were needed to carry the supplies for the first ring and another fifteen thousand ships would be arriving in the next week with the supplies for the second ring. Overseeing the project was Johannes Stegner, by far the most important job he would ever have.

The project they had facing them was the Octahedron, the innermost layer that would be used cheifly for energy collection, being located at only 1/3 AU from the star. Keeping the shells an open structure solves the problem of light and heat, where the polyhedra are open frameworks surrounding the primary. Each polyhedral edge is a latticework of dynamically supported members; supported within the polyhedra are various sizes of habitat, facing away from the local star, illuminated by reflected sunlight. Local gravity is towards the star, and this decreases rapidly in the outermost shells so much that the outermost habitats rotate for artificial gravity where required.

The polyhedra are in turn kept in place using surface structures not unlike drive sails, and powered by orbiting solar collectors. The polyhedra are linked together not by stiff connectors, but by massdriver streams which keep them in place and allow passengers to ride special shuttles from one polyhedron to the next.

It would be a daunting task to say the least and due to the circumstances construction drones could only be used in moderation. Most of the dirty work would be done by good old human hands, working side by side with the drones. There was no feasible time table for how long it would take to construct the massive structure, but Stegner would be awestruck if his grand children lived to see its completion.

Sighing slightly he gave a slight nod to a technician who started sending out signals to the other ships of the fleet. Slowly, over a thousand ships closed in on YTS 6465-7800313 and begain deploying literally trillions of orbital solar collectors. Then the orientation began as they were set into orbit. Finally their patterns were altered along their Z-axis. In what can only be described as a beautiful, coordinated dance, the collectors began to swirl in their new orbits forming the honeycombing pattern unitl they had all connected into the required pattern.

Next, they would have to send out the construction workers to assemble the pattern in individual sections until the octahedron was complete. It would be hard greuling work in the most extreme of conditions but in the end they would have assembled one of the largest structures in human history and Stegner knew that these mens' legacies would long outlive the men themselves. First, the men would have to work in extreme heat near to the sun with no relief in their thick and unrelenting space suits, and with no nighttime they would suffer from serious sleep problems for the first weeks. Stegner shook his head as he put on his own suit and loaded up onto a shuttle with a hundred or so other men. Poor souls.