Building a Dyson swarm is humanity's most ambitious engineering project. Our phased approach breaks down this monumental task into achievable milestones, from establishing space-based resource processing to deploying millions of solar collectors.
Total Estimated Cost
$9.55T
Total Phases
5
Current Phase
Phase 0
Space Resource Processing
Next Milestone
Mining Ops
First asteroid extraction
Research Papers
150+
Linked to phases
LLM Analyses
45+
Council opinions
High-level milestones across all phases showing the critical path to a complete Dyson swarm and beyond. Click any milestone to explore that phase in detail.
Establish the foundational infrastructure for asteroid mining and material processing in space. This phase focuses on de...
$15.71B
10-15 years
Begin construction of the first Dyson swarm elements. This phase focuses on building and deploying initial solar collect...
$158.00B
20-30 years
Scale up satellite production and deployment to achieve grid-significant power delivery (~1 TW to Earth). CAPACITY COST ...
$375.00B
50-100 years
Parallel Development Tracks
Transform the Dyson swarm into a nested megastructure of computational shells. CAPACITY COST MODEL: ...
$7.50T
200-1000 years
Construct stellar propulsion systems to enable controlled movement of the Sun and Solar System. CAPA...
$1.50T
200-500 years
Establish the foundational infrastructure for asteroid mining and material processing in space. This phase focuses on developing the supply chain for raw materials needed for subsequent construction phases.
Estimated Cost
$15.71B
Duration
10-15 years
Begin construction of the first Dyson swarm elements. This phase focuses on building and deploying initial solar collector satellites, establishing assembly infrastructure, and creating the communication/control systems.
Estimated Cost
$158.00B
Duration
20-30 years
Scale up satellite production and deployment to achieve grid-significant power delivery (~1 TW to Earth). CAPACITY COST MODEL: Self-replicating ISRU foundries produce 100,000 units; cost represents seed investment, bootstrap operations, and "vitamin" imports rather than unit-count multiplication.
Estimated Cost
$375.00B
Duration
50-100 years
Transform the Dyson swarm into a nested megastructure of computational shells. CAPACITY COST MODEL: ~1,350x reduction from linear methodology reflects self-replicating ISRU economics. Cost represents seed investment, R&D, "vitamin" imports, and governance software.
Estimated Cost
$7.50T
Duration
200-1000 years
Construct stellar propulsion systems to enable controlled movement of the Sun and Solar System. CAPACITY COST MODEL: ~73x reduction from linear methodology reflects ISRU economics and shared Phase 2/3a infrastructure. Cost represents R&D, seed deployment, and "vitamin" imports.
Estimated Cost
$1.50T
Duration
200-500 years