Sam Washburn‭

What would happen if an extremely advanced race removed the metal (everything beyond H and He) from a star. Would the star still function? Would it change in appearance or properties at all?

1 answer  ·  posted 10y ago by Sam Washburn‭  ·  last activity 10y ago by Sam Washburn‭

A Dyson Laser would be a spherical swarm megastructure arrangement of robots focusing mirrors directing sunlight towards a particular planet in a system heating it with enough energy to melt it. T...

1 answer  ·  posted 10y ago by Sam Washburn‭  ·  last activity 10y ago by Sam Washburn‭

If some advanced race were to make a solid opaque shell around our Sun, say around Mercury's orbit, something like a Dyson Sphere, how long would it take for Earth to freeze over and end most life?

2 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Sam Washburn‭  ·  last activity 10y ago by Sam Washburn‭

It's typically regarded that life needs liquids of some kind to evolve. But liquid is just a state where molecules can move around freely in order to interact with other molecules instead of being...

1 answer  ·  posted 10y ago by Sam Washburn‭  ·  last activity 9y ago by Sam Washburn‭

How probable is it that a gas giant planet made of "air" (roughly the same composition as Earth's atmosphere) could exist? What would it be like? How would it differ from Earth?

1 answer  ·  posted 10y ago by Sam Washburn‭  ·  last activity 10y ago by Sam Washburn‭

Diamonds are carbon. Plants take in CO2 and use the carbon. Chemically, could the right kind of plant have diamonds for berries, or is there some other limiting factor?

8 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by Sam Washburn‭  ·  last activity 9y ago by Sam Washburn‭

Imagine a human colony with the concept of an Earth day being transported somehow into the deep, deep space between galaxies. As we know, gravity wells affect the relative passage of time. So, in...

4 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by Sam Washburn‭  ·  last activity 8y ago by Sam Washburn‭

The singularity has occurred and it wants an off-site backup. How deep should we all bury the lunar datacenter to be comfortably safe from radiation, cosmic rays, etc., while not causing cave-ins ...

2 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by Sam Washburn‭  ·  last activity 9y ago by Sam Washburn‭

In a near future society, man will be mining asteroids far from Earth. One technology on board their ships is a hydrocarbon assembler. It takes in energy, water and carbonaceous asteroid matter a...

1 answer  ·  posted 8y ago by Sam Washburn‭  ·  last activity 8y ago by Sam Washburn‭

In my story there is something akin to an Island Three O'Neill cylinder buried vertically into the side of the asteroid Vesta. It is 5 miles across and 20 miles long. The station is buried but is...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by Sam Washburn‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Sam Washburn‭

In my story there is a full size (Island Three) O'Neill cylinder, 5 miles in diameter and 20 miles long. It doesn't have windows, but is lit internally down the center of the cylinder with a 20 mi...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by Sam Washburn‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Sam Washburn‭

I am wanting my 32km x ~7.5km buried space habitat to be hit with a cataclysmic disaster which changes things from everyday life to a survival lifestyle. I would like the station to be damaged to ...

4 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Sam Washburn‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Sam Washburn‭