To dwarf all inhabitatable objects
Scenario
This is set in the future; humans already achieved Type II civilization status. Humans conquered the entire Solar System and managed to colonize Jupiter and all its moons. The next big challenge is to create an artificial living quarter that is bigger than all spacecrafts and planets.
Objective
The objective is to leave for the nearest star, as there is an imminent threat as one of the nearby star is going supernova and the gamma ray burst (GRB) is expected to sweep through the entire Solar System. In order to avoid sterilization from the GRB, man decided to leave for a prolonged journey to the next home.
Conditions
- Spacecraft must not collapse on itself (you are allowed enormous interior space)
- Use all available resource within Solar System.
- Spacecraft must be assembled within heliosphere.
- Transmutation and Magic are not allowed.
- Spacecraft must support all lifeforms within Solar System on its
journey to reach its destination. - Spacecraft's volume must be bigger than Jupiter.
- Spacecraft must be ready for interstellar travel.
Question
Is it possible for a spacecraft to dwarf Jupiter? How?
Note
Why the need to dwarf Jupiter, you ask? I believe a warp drive isn't available to a Type II civilization, and journeying at subluminal speed to the nearest star would take numerous generations thus more space less conflict.
You only need to consider the feasibility of implementing/erecting an engineering structure on this scale; ignore artificial climates and ecosystems' designs and their influence.
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1 answer
A Bubbleworld would meet your specifications, especially if you encased Jupiter.
Bubbleworld
A bubbleworld is an artificial construct that consists of a shell of living space around a sphere of hydrogen gas. The shell contains air, people, houses, furniture, etc. It was invented to answer the question, "What is the largest space colony that can be built?"[24] However, most of the volume is not habitable and there is no power source.
Theoretically, any gas giant could be enclosed in a solid shell; at a certain radius the surface gravity would be terrestrial, and energy could be provided by tapping the thermal energy of the planet.
The shell would hold all of the plants, animals, habitat.
Construction
Start by taking apart Mercury, Venus, and Mars, the asteroids, Plutoids, Kupiter belt, and any moons that aren't water. That's your raw construction material.
Habitats can be created as spheres interconnected with tubes, like stringing beads on a wire. A lot of the spheres can be spun for artificial gravity, with the access tubes as the axel. This framework can be built in pieces, first in a ring around Jupiter, and then expand outward until the planet is encased.
Moving
Moving something bigger than Jupiter (or Jupiter with a shell around it) is going to take a lot. Gravity manipulation is going to be useful, but if that is too close to magic, then there is another option. Get some really really big drives, call them planetary drives, and put one on the Jupiter bubble, one on Earth, and one on each gas giant. The drives will use the planetary hydrogen as fuel. You need Jupiter for its heat, so avoid using it for fuel. Instead the other gas giants are the fuel tanks. They will provide the fuel to accelerate themselves, as well as provide the fuel for Earth and the Jupiter bubble.
As each gas giant runs out of atmosphere, the cores can be mined for metals and anything left is just set adrift.
You surround earth with orbiting fusion furnaces, which would keep it from freezing, and put it in orbit around Jupiter, along any ice/water moons you have. Jupiter's magnetic field will help protect Earth and the shell from interstellar radiation.
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