It’s a pretty straightforward modification of the Caplan thruster. You scoop up bits of sun with very strong magnetic fields, but rather than fusing it and using it to move a star, you cool most of it (firing some back with very high velocity to balance things momentum wise) and keep the matter you extract (or fuse some if you need quick energy). There’s even a video on it! Skip to 4:20 for the relevant bit.
The action space is too large for this to be infeasible, but at a 101 level, if the Sun spun fast enough it would come apart, and angular momentum is conserved so it’s easy to add gradually.
Do we have some basic physical-feasibility insights on this or you just speculate?
It’s a pretty straightforward modification of the Caplan thruster. You scoop up bits of sun with very strong magnetic fields, but rather than fusing it and using it to move a star, you cool most of it (firing some back with very high velocity to balance things momentum wise) and keep the matter you extract (or fuse some if you need quick energy). There’s even a video on it! Skip to 4:20 for the relevant bit.
I was expecting (Methods start 16:00)
The action space is too large for this to be infeasible, but at a 101 level, if the Sun spun fast enough it would come apart, and angular momentum is conserved so it’s easy to add gradually.
Mostly speculation based on tech level. But:
To the extent temperature is an issue, energy can be used to transfer temperature from one place to another.
Maybe matter from the Sun can be physically expelled into more manageable chunks. The Sun already ejects matter naturally (though at a slow rate).
Nanotech in general (cell-like, self-replicating robots).
High energy availability with less-speculative tech like Dyson spheres.