In response to Elation
Yes, kids, build a house 3.14^3.14 feet away from the sun.
In response to Loduwijk
Loduwijk wrote:
Not really. There is plenty of surface space to most stars, so defenses would only take up a fraction of what it.

But building RIGHT round the sun would be utterly amazing. The area would be pitch black so no one could see your defenses until BLAM!
In response to Elation
which still leaves the question, why would I want to go around the sun in the first place?
In response to Rockinawsome
Rockinawsome wrote:
which still leaves the question, why would I want to go around the sun in the first place?

O = sun, x = you, t = enemy, # = space
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X: ALL YOU'RE BASE ARE BELONG TO US
T: What you say !!
Err...
T: The [X] enemy group should be located somewhere around here, but the heat of the sun could burn up our ships! Unless we upgrade our shields, but that'll be expensive.
X: All our saved up money was into this, execute plan Q!

I dunno', but it'd be awesome to hide behind stuff that the enemy can't get to because they're poor. :p
In response to Hell Ramen
hehe yeah, I guess
In response to Draxxis
Ok, just to clarify, Orbital defenses ORBIT things. And the way I envisioned all of this is: You have weapon platforms orbiting the sun, guarding some sort of array of generator satellites which in turn produce microwave beams that send the energy to a central location (or perhaps the generator satellites themselves could be used as some sort of energy weapons). I wasn't suggesting building directly on the sun, or completely encasing the sun.
In response to Igmolicious
Igmolicious wrote:
I wasn't suggesting building directly on the sun, or completely encasing the sun.


Although completely encasing the sun would be LOADS more likely to kill everyone.
In response to Hell Ramen
Hell Ramen wrote:
I dunno', but it'd be awesome to hide behind stuff that the enemy can't get to because they're poor. :p

T: Hey, wait! I have an idea! We can go AROUND the sun, using its gravity to bring us to X's location! It's a brilliant strategy! I shall call it... orbiting.

X: AHHH! THEY HAVE A MASTER STRATEGIST IN THEIR FLEET! RUN!
In response to Crispy
Crispy, your ship would need stuff resistant to the sun. :p Or else it'd take awhile to get around. And I mean like, really go behind it. Stay near it.
In response to Hell Ramen
It shouldn't take that long to get around it, actually.
Most planets Earth do(es) it in a year.

*Edit* Woah, egocentrist Physics there.
In response to Elation
Yeah, a year. >_> And Earth is kind of far away from the Sun. I mean like stay close.
In response to Hell Ramen
Hell Ramen wrote:
Yeah, a year. >_> And Earth is kind of far away from the Sun. I mean like stay close.

Yep, and if Mercury manages it, a spaceship can.
In response to Hell Ramen
You don't need to get any closer than you already are if you don't want to. It doesn't necessarily take any longer, either; if you want to go around the sun faster, you just have to thrust towards it (while you're moving around it) to increase the centripetal force (otherwise you'd zoom off into space because the existing centripetal force - due to the gravity of the sun - would not be enough to keep you in orbit). If there are ships capable of flying through solar systems in order to do battle, this would not be hard. =)

I knew all that circular motion stuff from physics class would come in handy one day. =P
In response to Loduwijk
Venus is hotter [i]on average[/i] compared to Mercury.

The side of Mercury that faces the sun tends to get very very warm. Warmer then Venus gets. But the other side is utterly freezing, because Mercury has no atmosphere to keep the heat in. So Mercury gets warmer, but on average Venus is warmer.
In response to Jp
Jp wrote:
Venus is hotter [i]on average[/i] compared to Mercury.

The side of Mercury that faces the sun tends to get very very warm. Warmer then Venus gets. But the other side is utterly freezing, because Mercury has no atmosphere to keep the heat in. So Mercury gets warmer, but on average Venus is warmer.

Yes, so we should build the spaceships with big chunks of rock on one side (hey, it's weightless in sp- actually, the sun'd be pulling you in), and make sure you're living quarters are on the "Dark side".
In response to Elation
The extra mass won't affect how fast you fall in, but it will affect how much force you need to push it around. Which means more fuel. Which isn't good.

Better just make them out of something shiny, like alfoil. Well, maybe not alfoil, but put a shiny surface on them.
In response to Jp
Jp wrote:
Better just make them out of something shiny, like alfoil. Well, maybe not alfoil, but put a shiny surface on them.


Or rather, something that can convert the solar energy into more fuel!

So now it seems the ideal location for a valuable possession is out in the middle of space, not behind a sun.
In response to Elation
What you just said makes it ideal to be "behind" the sun, not out farther in a random patch of space. The farther out you go, the less radiation you will aquire.

And about using huge rocks so one side is cooler, you don't have to go to that extreme.

The Hubble space telescope's successor is going to have a panel that trails along between it and the sun whose only purpose is to shield it from the sun's radiation, and thus the heat, keeping the telescope at an extremely low temperature.
In response to Loduwijk
Loduwijk wrote:
What you just said makes it ideal to be "behind" the sun, not out farther in a random patch of space. The farther out you go, the less radiation you will aquire.


But Radiation = Power! It's true!
In response to Elation
Then you agree with me? Your post is a bit confusing.

As for your formula, it is not quite accurate. Radiation does not equal power, though some things we can gather energy from are in the radiation list.

Either way, this still supports the idea that you should be close to the sun, not out in the middle of space, as you said, which I take to mean out in the middle of nowhere.

If I were to use the sun to generate power by getting closer to it, I would not bother setting up a solar panel grid. That seems to be what most people have in mind when they talk about this sort of thing, but you can get much more energy in different ways. The one I have in mind is to use the star as what it is, a giant nuclear reactor. Set up a large tube in a circular shape near the sun so that it will heat up tremendously and the fluid inside will run through a generator same way it does on normal nuclear power plants here on earth. Have a shield that keeps the radiation away from the other half of the circuit, and have an extra supply of fluid on the shaded half. Exchange the heated material with the cooled material on that side so it falls down and around the loop and is ready to be heated for another revolution. With the extra supply on the shaded side, you give the fluid enough time to cool down before it re-enters the loop. There you have it, a device that needs little, if any, maintenance and powers up a battery it has on board. Ships could come on over to the sun periodically to suck the power out of them and carry it back to the planet. Or you could just run a line out that is millions of miles long and carries the power there directly, though that would be even more of a stretch.
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