http:%%//%%www.orbitsimulator.com/formulas/ ... inder.html

Following from my earlier post. This website will give you the Lagrange points for a two body system given their masses and distance between them.

I used Pluto (or a pluto-like dwarf planet with no moon) and the sun as examples, and I got about 6881688.874956055 km for L1, which is where the mini sun from my other post would have to go.

If I wanted the insolation from the mini sun to equal the actual sun on Earth, it would have to put out 810 zettawatts. That’s a lotta watts.

But we’re not talking about Earth. Yih has a solar constant (focal constant?) of arount 860 W/m^2, so we can shave the power output down to about 511 ZW. If we wanted it to equal the insolation at Yih’s pole during the summer solstice which is 430 W/m^2, we get 256 ZW. Now that’s the equator of our dwarf planet getting that amount of pseudo sun, the poles would get much less.

At this point I have to wonder, why bother with the lagrange point? Surely if I put the thing in LEO any savings on fuel provided by the lagrange point would be more than made up for by the lower power needed to get a reasonable amount of insolation, so we’re back to my constellation of close-orbiting satellites. That’s not quite as dramatic lore-wise though.

As unrealistic as this is, it has tons of lore potential. These mini suns would be built, owned, and managed by the Bright Way during the age of decadence to make dwarf planets in the outer belt habitable by providing light and a magnetosphere. the BW doesn't own the planets, they're contracted by whatever entity is settling the world, a government or some other corporation or private group. But the mini suns require upkeep, and that requires money. Planetary authorities didn't pay the tithe? Looks like they're losing their sun privileges until their account balance is cleared.

I can see the mini suns being targeted by partisan rebels during the war. Maybe the technology to build new ones and maintain the ones that exist is lost along with the Bright Way's corporate interests, or rather, the plans are destroyed by the Preservationists out of spite. Maybe in modern times there are hearthkeepers that specialize in their upkeep and are highly sought after like COBOL programmers. The Partisans would be natural clients for this type of service, and I can see friction arising between PT citizens who hate the Bright way so much they refuse to work with them no matter what and others who just want their sun to work and don't care who fixes it.

Maybe the tech to make them is still around but they're so emblematic of the ancien régime that planetary PT governments refuse to maintain them and build inferior satellite networks to replace them.

So yeah, hardly realistic but bursting with lore potential.