Stellar engine

Diagram of a class-C stellar engine (to scale) built around a Sun-like star. It consists of a partial Dyson swarm composed of 5 Dyson rings of solar collectors (the class-B component), and a large statite Shkadov thruster (the class-A component). Perspective is from below the system's ecliptic at a distance of ~2.8 AU. The system's direction of acceleration is on a vector from the center of the star through the center of the Shkadov thruster, which is hovering over the star's north pole (with regards to the ecliptic), at a distance of 1 AU.

Stellar engines are a class of hypothetical megastructures which use the resources of a star to generate available work (also called exergy). For instance, they can use the energy of the star to produce mechanical, electrical or chemical work or they can use the impulse of the light emitted by the star to produce thrust, able to control the motion of a star system.[1] The concept has been introduced by Bădescu and Cathcart.[2] The variants which produce thrust may accelerate a star and anything orbiting it in a given direction.[3][4] The creation of such a system would make its builders a type-II civilization on the Kardashev scale.

  1. ^ "Stellar_Engines.pdf". Google Docs. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  2. ^ Badescu, Viorel; Cathcart, Richard B. (2000). "Stellar engines for Kardashev's Type II Civilization". Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. 53: 297–306. Bibcode:2000JBIS...53..297B. Archived from the original on 2018-08-24. Retrieved 2013-07-01.
  3. ^ Badescu, Viorel; Cathcart, Richard B. (February 2006). "Use of Class A and Class C stellar engines to control Sun movement in the galaxy". Acta Astronautica. 58 (3): 119–129. Bibcode:2006AcAau..58..119B. doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2005.09.005.
  4. ^ Badescu, Viorel; Cathcart, Richard B. (2006). "Chapter 12: Stellar Engines and the Controlled Movement of the Sun". Macro-Engineering: A Challenge for the Future. Water Science and Technology Library. Vol. 54. pp. 251–280. doi:10.1007/1-4020-4604-9_12. ISBN 978-1-4020-3739-9.