Sci Fi Science!

Great Show!
14 September 2010 | by sedativchunk (United States) – See all my reviews

I love Sci Fi Science! I am a big space and science enthusiast as well as a fan of science fiction. Unfortunately in todays world there is a brick wall that separates the factions of both those things. Sci Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible is one show that thins the line between science fiction and real science, and that is a great thing.

When I first watched this show a few weeks ago, I was very skeptical. It seemed silly and unrealistic. Lasers on the Moon? Asteroids crashing into Mars to terraform the planet? As ridiculous as Michio Kaku's ideas sound at first, they are, in my opinion, very realistic as well as practical. Kaku is attempting to explain things scientifically that many other ignorant so called scientist seem to put off as being impossible. Isn't science supposed to be about making the impossible a reality? The main thing that turned me off of this show at first was the overall quality and narration. After recently watching Stephen Hawking's brilliant "Into the Universe" series, this show seemed to be lacking. It wasn't quite at the level Hawking's three part series was. But Stephen Hawking spent over two years editing and narrating three episodes of his show, so of course they are going to be of high quality. Kaku's show is more simplified and is geared towards being a weekly television show rather than a huge one time only deal show, so I lowered the bar for this show and embraced it for what it is. In the end, I found I actually enjoyed it!

Kaku's show seems to be more geared towards sci fi fans more than actual scientist, but that does not mean it is not worth checking out if you are a scientist or science enthusiast. How would you go about creating a society on Mars? What is the best way to protect Earth's ecosystem permanently from killer asteroids? Colonizing Mars and protecting Earth from killer asteroids are more than science fiction. They both could happen one day hundreds of years from now. I think it is nice to see a real scientist actually talk about real problems of the future and come up with a practical solution on how to solve them. For the skeptics, I will talk about one of Kaku's episodes and challenge it's ideas. Being a curious person and computer scientist myself, I challenged Kaku's theory on terraforming Mars. Kaku did an episode of Sci Fi Science where he talked about how we would be able to attach rockets to asteroids from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, slingshot them around Jupiter and send them hurling towards Mars. When the asteroids would impact, they would theoretically melt the polar ice caps on Mars and create a greenhouse effect on Mars to heat the entire planet. This would hypothetically make the planet suitable for life as well as protect it from the Sun's deadly radiation.

As much as I tried to challenge this asteroid concept, in the end, I couldn't find a better solution. There are variables involved. How would we attach rockets to massive asteroids? How would we navigating them back through the asteroid belt after sling shotting around Jupiter? How long would the process take? How long would Mars be hot for or how long would the effects last? As many questions as there are, the idea is practical and realistic. How else do you heat an entire planet? Mirrors reflecting light from the sun on the planet? Changing the albedo of the entire surface of the planet? The cost and ideas of those other theories are astronomical. Building guided missiles and sling shotting objects in space has been done before, so why can't that be applied to asteroids and Mars?

Have fun and watch this show, challenge Kaku's ideas and you will find that his show is not all just silly business for science fiction. It is real, practical science. Give this show a try. It may not be everyones flavor of science, but I like it more than the typical Discovery Channel type show.
The big flaw? Parallel circles that don't orbit the sun won't work. The concept illustrated in A New Solar System will collapse into chaos. For a sphere to work, the individual elements will have to orbit in great circles around the periphery of the sphere also creating chaotic conditions as orbits must cross each other and perturbations become extremely complex. The only truly stable formation would be the Dyson ring with all elements in the same orbital plane. A good illustration of why the sphere wouldn't work are the rings of Saturn. There are none in skewed orbits and that also shows the fate of the sphere. Gravity will collapse it into a ring over time if it is attempted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere#Dyson_swarm

Just the ring, Michio! It's an ambitious enough project in itself.

P.S. (Sept 18) With elements of a ring or sphere in orbit, artificial gravity can't be created on the inside as Kaku proposed. To maintain orbit gravitational and centripetal forces must balance resulting in 0g forces. Any attempt to accelerate the ring/sphere to produce 1g will quickly blow it apart.

10 months ago

Presumably a Dyson Sphere would only be constructed around a dwarf-type star as they are extremely long-lived and more stable than larger stars. But even those stars would not last forever. And the death of such a star would probably be a nonviolent cooling. What bothers me about the DS is the amount of matter required to build it. All system bodies would have to be liquidated and much more would be required. I don't see how any race of beings, regardless of advancement, could do it.
Well,unless they are a super civilization like Atlanteans and Sidairians.Check out Terra-Prime at Maveric Universe Wiki