Technosignature Research Portal

One potential application for alien megastructures is Star Lifting. Suggested by David Criswell in 1985, this technique could be applied by a technologically advanced space faring civilization to gradually reduce the mass of its host star, thereby increasing its main sequence life expectancy. To apply Star Lifting, a civilization would construct a partial shell of solar collectors around its star and use this energy to project a collimated electromagnetic beam into the star's photosphere. This process would increase the star's solar wind. Star Lifting is investigated quantitively and several operational scenarios are presented. To be effective, Star Lifting will be a very-long-duration process. Therefore, an advanced space-faring civilization might elect to preserve its biosphere during the post-main-sequence phase of its host stars existence using interstellar migration as an alternative.