NationStates Jolt Archive

Solar power satelites and statites were certainly not uncommon...
But no one built them like the Guilds.

The reason for the Guild presence within the orbit of Mercury was becoming apparent. Of the hundreds of kilometer-wide solar collectors hovering over the sun, six hundred had been tilted and nudged into a rough ring around the Sun's equator, where they now rocked back and forth, making use of light pressure to do the precision work of aligning them all into a perfect circle.

Multiple toroids adorned with wispy white and black sails hovered around one of these collectors, robotic appendages screwing new sections into place to expand the semi-statite into a shield for work to progress behind.

Eventually, a set of three autonomous asteroid tugs delivered a small metallic rock behind the collector. Taking advantage of the high energy density this close to the sun, the rock was quickly broken up and the components melted down and forced through forms into two multi-kilometer long beams.

This particular asteroid had been a very lucky find; little slag had to be removed to produce 99% purity molybdenum. When the beams had reached nearly six-point-five kilometers in length, tugs were attached to either end and the midpoints, and the beams began to bend. A series of mirrors and lenses directed solar energy to the end points, temporarily melting them and sealing the joint between them, resulting in two two-kilometer wide rings. Robotic constructors began riding around the rings as if on rails, welding in place a series of smaller cross-bars.

"Noted and monitored"

Following the completion of the cross-bracing, a new set of cargo ships came by, and the rail-riding robots continued to make their rounds of the circular structure. Strips of nickel were stretched out around the frame, followed by layer upon layer of superconductor tape, followed again by bolts of solid-state computational devices, then turbopumps and pipelines, and all covered over in blindingly white titanium oxide panels, with thin black fronds sticking out at right angles to the sun.

Finally, the new structure emerged from behind its shield, and began slowly falling towards the corona.

While two more of the two-kilometer rings were constructed and eventually dropped towards the sun, automatons worked tirelessly on the six hundred equatorial collectors. They were expanded in area, and large cylinders constructed parallel to the equator on the darksides.

Meanwhile, four more collector-like structures were constructed- but collectors they were not. Two were nearly perfect mirrors, covered over with liquid crystals and a layer of phosphor sandwhiched between- not that anyone looking on would know this. The other two were simple large sheets of semi-silvered glass, framed with magnetosails.

Mirrored petals sticking out from the edges of the 2k rings were adjusted up and down to change the structures' cross-sections and, therefore, the total amplitude and direction of light pressure exerted on them. The three quickly manuevered into a constellation in the solar sky, and activated their powerful magnetosails.