alt Hacker NewsEssentially, completely sure. Also, purely energetically, disassembling the moon basically could not occur on the timescale of a few years.
Essentially, completely sure. Also, purely energetically, disassembling the moon basically could not occur on the timescale of a few years.
Energetically, it would take 1.244e29 J to disassemble the moon: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=binding+energy+moon
This can only be done if the VN machines are able to form a useful cloud away from the moon immediately after they've disassembled the surface layer. If they aren't allowed to do that, it would take 415 millennia: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=1.244e29+J+%2F+%281kW%2...
But you can make it twice as fast by getting the first layer to lift the second layer to cislunar orbit, then combine the power of both layers; then four times as fast etc. etc.
I don't know the upper limit before the main constraint is cooling.