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Ryuukei8569 — Approaching a megastructure
#cruiser #megastructure #space #warship
Published: 2019-12-28 21:03:25 +0000 UTC; Views: 2420; Favourites: 96; Downloads: 0
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So this is my first attempt at making a megastructure. something that again I find isn't showcased a lot in typical Sci fi is megastructures. now when I mean megastructures, I mean ships and artificial constructs capable of holding planetary scale populations or larger. Now the megastrucure shown is a ringworld that is approximately 20,000 kilometers in diameter and with a usable surface area about 2/3rd that of earth. Now in practice a megastructure like this could easily support a population much larger than earth due to the fact that the land vs water area makes the surface of the ring world more optimal, so deserts aren't really present on the ringworld. Plus major cities are often placed below the habitable surface, allowing the surface of the structure to be more optimized for food production and such. Gravity is generated by simple centrifugal force, rather than much more expensive artificial gravity generators. in the case of this ringworld, artificial gravity generators are only present in the central spire, where centrifugal force is too weak to simulate gravity.
Now in my setting it is important to note that ringworld refers only refers to planetary scale ringworlds, not solar system scale ones. So ringworlds in my setting do not surround a star. The very large versions which do surround a star are referred to as a star ring instead. Megastrucutres in general are quite common in my setting, with ringworlds being a very common type, as they are low maintenance and easy to scale to different sizes, while also being fairly inexpensive, at least as far as megastrucutres are concerned.
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"Plus major cities are often placed below the habitable surface, allowing the surface of the structure to be more optimized for food production and such."
I can assume travel from one part of the ring to another isn't too much a problem with easy integration of good magnetic rail/hyper-loop systems. Though I wonder who lives on the ring's surface, is the water salty or fresh, is life manageable in the ring's interior or is it a bit dystopian, how long it took them to build it, and how many people can live on one? Also, just how valuable and important would habitable worlds suitable for earth based life be in your setting? Would it be in upmost importance or would it just be a pride thing simply due to the fact worlds can be built easier than they can be found and/or Terra-formed. Are there many planets people live and if so, are such planets able to easily host earth life a commonality or a rarity and do most people live on planets or megastructures and man made habitats?
I also can assume there is artificial gravity in your universe but it is limited in it's range which is why for larger structures like this, centrifugal force and ring/cylinder shapes are a must.
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Quality of life on a megastrucutre varies from Civilization to Civilization. This one is an OISU owned megastructure, so typically it is quite good all throughout. For the most part Dystopia's are rare, though star nations that's are less well off or more corrupt it can be more common. But designs and sizes of various megastrucutre can very considerably depending on when it was built, by whom, or just the needs of the time.
But for the msot part the main reason why megastructures are very common in Infinte cosmos compared to other Sci fi mainly is because FTL is not easy to achieve. The Akurian's one of the main species in the OISU, was space faring for well over ten thousand years before getting FTL technology. So the fact that for a long period of time many civilization's are restricted to STL methods of travel means that is is generally easier in both energy and resources to simply build large megastrucutres closer to home that to spend decades and monumental amounts of energy to get to other star systems.
Now due to the actions of past Civilizations, earth like planets are quite common in the galaxy, but this usually isn't noticed until some form of FTL is attained. and even in an FTL capable civilization, megastructres still carry many advantages. For one they are a lot easier to defend than a planet, since they are often constructed with very strong material's, making them difficult to bombard, and their designs makes putting shields and weapons on them much easier than conventional planets. The other benefit is that they allow for the concentration of industrial capabilities that regular planets cannot easily contain.
Artificial gravity is definitely a thing, but the main reason its just not used for megastrucutres is cost. Violating the known laws of physics is expensive, where as using Cenrtifugal force is a hell of a lot cheaper than putting artificial gravity generators everywhere, both using far less energy as well as not having to buy the generators themselves. Plus like any technology, Gravity generators are subject to mechanical failure form time to time. Centrifugal force, not so much, at least not on a structure of this size. As such artificial Gravity is common on some types of civilian spaceships and nearly universal on warships, but rare on a megastructure.
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Thanks for answering some of my questions. Though I do have a few more.
What would a good estimation of population in a ringworld in your setting?
What's the common building material? How is it obtained and is it easy to work with?
What would the average citizen consensus be on planets and are they preferable to the common person or is the ring world more appealing?
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So its a bit of a complex answer,
For 1. Depends on the size of the ringworld and its specific design as well as whether the civilization in question is willing to pack people in more or less. This one specific example could comfortably house a few billion on the surface, and although the sections below the surface are typically industrial in nature, if converted to living space, it could be a lot more.
for the second question. Common building materials vary with time, but its usually an alloy of exotic artificial molecules and common material like iron or steel to form materials hundreds to thousands to hundreds of thousands of times stronger than modern steel's. For the industrial technology available in the setting, it is not hard to produce these materials in the large quantities needed.
For the third question, depends on the culture that the individual comes from as well as individual preferences. But if i had to say for the majority of individuals, they aren't too bothered by one or the other.
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I would be safe to assume that below surface, populations could be much higher. How big and wide is this construct anyway? (You can give radius, diameter or circumference. Doesn't matter.)
Thanks for all this information regarding this Banks Orbital. (Ringworlds go around a star. Banks orbitals are smaller.)
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They could be, is the entire below surface area was used for housing. But whether or not this is the case depends on the needs of the Civilization as well as the Cultural values. This particular ringworld is an Akurian model, same guys that built the ship. And Akurians do like to live in a somewhat more natural setting so on the vast Majority of Akurian megastructures, they tend to live on the surface, while the below surface regions that aren't structural are instead used for industrial purposes.
And within my setting Ringworlds is the term used to denote the smaller types, while the large ones that go around a star is referred to as a Star Ring. Partially because I dont really think the term ringworld works that well for an object that would be much larger than stars. Star Rings of course are far rarer, and although they are within the technological capability of most large star nations to build. they aren't built very frequently due to the difficulties in establishing a good day night cycle.
At some point i will eventually devise a catalog for all the megastructure types that will show up in my setting as there are quite a few.
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It would be a great idea for that. The inner exterior part of the ring could be used for more natural looking habitats and beautiful landscapes I would assume that the richest and most powerful/privileged people of the ring would live there. Along with various nature reserves and sanctuaries. While the interior is used for industry and inner cities as to not mess up the habitat they spent God knows how long to build. (But I wouldn't say that the interior area is just for less folks either. Some people actually like the city landscape and it would be easier to reach and oversee industrial areas. There are some beautiful urban designs that can be customized to the inhabitant's liking.)
Well by definition you are not wrong. These are worlds shaped as rings. I think it's neat your setting has it's own classifications of what a ringworld is. Though the settings made by our earlier Sci-fi writers use "Ringworld" and "Banks Orbital" differently it is noted that different civilizations would name things differently.
Though there is a way to do a proper day/night cycle for a ringworld (Star ring) and that is to make a smaller ring with transparent, shaded (If you want dawn and evening.), and dark parts to it. See here.
( www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk-Ivm… Not too high tech to be honest and not nearly as hard as a Dyson sphere.)
I would love to see the different classifications of megastructures and habitats you classify one day.
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Eh, not quite an accurate assumption. Actually the natural sections of the ring are commonly split between general living space, recreational area's and some faarmlands, althrough a lot of food production is often done on a secodnary layer as well. Within the Akurian confederation, you dont have to be wealthy to live in this region, and in fact its not uncommon for many of the "Homeless people" to live off the land here. These Ringworlds while large are not so expensive to manufacture that space is at a particularly great premium. Often the constructors capable of building these things can make a hundred tons of material for a tiny fraction of the cost that it would take today, so making a ring like this, while certainly more costly than any modern day construction project, could still be done with the economic output of a single planet. A few hundred years worth of tax collection from around a billion middle class individuals could build one. And considering that in this setting, age reversal technology is commonplace, so that even normal humans can live for thousands of years, a few hundred years to civilizations like these isn't that big of a deal. Larger rings often benefit form economy of scale, so their cost to tonnage and surface area ratio is lower than smaller rings, thus a larger ring is generally more affordable to live on than the smaller ones.
Though if the ring is more of an industrial based ring, or a more military oriented one, then the subsurface regions are the more valuable area's while the natural surface is actually where all the less well off folks live. But int he end it depends on the culture and the location of the rings.
As for the Day night cycle on the larger Star rings, i have figured out an alternate and perhaps simpler solution to establishing a day night cycle, but it be difficult to explain in words, maybe in a few weeks to a couple months time i'll put out some pictures showing my concepts, but for right now, my efforts are focusing on finishing more ship designs, so I won't be working on different mega structure pics for at least two weeks. And eventually i'll release classification sheets, but i cant even give a definitive timeline on that.
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You did an amazing job and captured a great Halo-esque feel to your picture while also making it unique in your own special way.
I'm curious to know how this ring is powered, if there is a day and night cycle, and how do they get oxygen and or an atmosphere. Finally if there are no sentient beings there to maintain the facility, how is it kept intact if at all?
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Well the ring doesn't have a lot of high powered items, and power supply depends greatly on the era that the ring was constructed, but typically a Megastructures power supply is broadly similar to many starship power plants at the time, with occasional modernization's over time, though it often depends on the policies of the local government in charge. However most megastrucutres, including the ring world dont have many high powered applications to worry about. Atmosphere is kept in place by physical walls about a 150 kilometers high, and the rings environment is often designed to be stable with minimal intervention. Occasionally they will need to fire up maneuvering thrusters to maintain proper centrifugal force or occasionally adjust the position of the structure.
That begin said, megastrucutres are also very good industrial centers, so the manufacturing sectors of these megastructures are often the biggest demand during normal operations. Of course its a different story of the ring is attacked by outside forces, in which case the biggest power load comes from the shields and the weapon systems.
And yes there are people regularly living on these structures, they often have planetary scale populations all the time. The primary purpose of a megastructure like this is to provide living space. The fact that the ring spins in order to create centrifugal gravity also creates a day-night cycle on its own. But generally again, depending on the era it was constructed, magastructres are built with materials that are hundreds, to thousands, to hundreds of thousands of times the strength of structural steel. As a result even old ones can remain physically intact for an extremely long time with no maintenance. Maintained megastructures can of course last for as long as they are properly maintained.
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Oh, a lot of it is not kept in my head but in an extensive series of notes on my computer. Though i will point out, i am pretty deep into my own story, so i dont have much time to help out others with their own works unless its very basic pointers and such.
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Well the top and bottom of Akurian ship designs tends to be mirrored, aside from a few minor details, and when it comes to inspiration, I take from real world designs first instead of other sci fi's. Though probably one of my favorite aspects of the ship is adding sensor emplacements and communication mountings that end to be somewhat ignored on other designs.
I guess though a ringworld regardless of the type is always going to at least in passing somewhat resemble a halo. But my ringworlds are not galaxy annihilating superweapons, they are basically just places for people to live,, albeit they are places that are much easier to defend from attack than a regular planet.
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that reminds me of all the halo's we all played before
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Yeah, though I tried not to make it look too much like a halo, but that being said, a Ringworld type megastructure is a very scientifically plausible one, and Halo wasn't the one to come up with the idea. Of course my ringworlds are not galaxy destroying super weapons either.
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make's since to me anyways nice work as always with your character's and your ship's as well
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its gorgeous and has me thinking how cool it would be to see a man made ring around a planet
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Its something I'll have to figure out how to draw at some point. One of my future planned webcomics takes place on such a planet. Said webcomic is in its outline phase, and is slated to be my third one.
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You're quite welcome!!
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yeah i guess its not too bad for a first attempt.
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