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In Engineering, What is a Megastructure?

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In Engineering, What is a Megastructure?

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A megastructure is an artificial construct of enormous size. The term is informal but generally megastructures are at least a few thousand kilometers in size along one dimension. Megastructures appear most frequently in science fiction, though arguably the Great Wall of China is a megastructure. The Great Wall can be seen from low earth orbit, but so can highways, fields of crops, and large buildings. Low earth orbit is only 200 km (125 mi.) up so this makes sense. Megastructures are most frequently seen in science fiction, and it seems like only a matter of time until our civilization starts to build them. A megastructure is meant to be a contiguous, self-supported entity – that is, not composed of an aggregate of smaller constructs. The most familiar fictional megastructure would be the Death Star. It was suggested that the Death Star was similar in size to the Moon. If so, it would be about 3,500 km (2,000 mi.) in size. Its core would be under a tremendous amount of pressure and wou

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