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#1 2006-12-20 03:14:53
- karov
- Member
- From: Bulgaria
- Registered: 2004-06-03
- Posts: 953
Re: Terraforming the Molecular clouds
Google for Barnard 68 - a splendid example of pre-star Bok globule.
About 0.5 ly wide, approx. one solar mass, typical composition - roughly three-quarters H + one quarter He ( less 1-2% astronomical "metals"), situated about 300-400 ly from here.
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If the He transmutated ( simplest triple-alpha He-4 synthesis into C-12 ), into building materials ( estimaed areal density of ~40 000 kg /m2 of crust, base, atmosphere, water...), the rest of the mass in form of H roughly - 15x10exp29 kg and given efficient mass-to-energy conversion ( say using micro-blackholes for "mills" ), is enough for 100 mln . years to provide earth-level comfortable ilumination per every m2 of:
500 light years long , curved as giant "chromosome" - say, 1000km wide macaroni-habitat, without to be necessary to scoop the interstallar medium for more fuel/mass.
Thus, with about 1 solar mass of material it could be ended up with ~25 BILLIONS of Earth-equivalent areas of single habitat. The longest walking lane in the Galaxy... 
Exponential building rate of say tenfold growth a year... the shear volume of 0.5 ly wide initial globule, should provide deep enough heat sink for the power system to work with highest possible thermodynamical efficiency.
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