Moon Brains (A1-0)

MoonBrain in the Ophistodon Star System. The surface is characterized by circular computational megacircuits.

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A MoonBrain (also known as a M-Brain) is a computational substrate megastructure comparable in mass and size to a small moon or rocky core of a planet, typically in the 1x10²¹ kilogram range.

Structure

The computronium basis of a modern MoonBrain usually consists of a highly ordered metastable colloidal structure mostly of Diamondoid or Corundumoid, as well as other materials. Like in Jupiter Brains, these colloidal structures form a network of nodes around a central energy core consisting of Quantum Dot Circuits (QDC) and Molecular Storage Systems (MSS). Each node acts as a processing element, a memory storage system, or both, meant to act with relative independence. Internal connections between the nodes are optical, employing fiber optics, waveguides and utilizing directional signals sent through vacuum.

If a MoonBrain is constructed using an existing moon or small planet, the resulting object may include portions of the original object in its original form - sometimes a core of moonrock remains at the centre of the MoonBrain, or a crust of apparently inert rock surrounds the processing substrate, or both. MoonBrains which are concealed beneath a layer of native rock are quite common, but they often have issues associated with waste heat management.

A very active MoonBrain may use Plasma Processing to increase its speed of thought and data density, in which case the energy requirements of the processors would be very high, and the megastructure may glow brightly due to the significant amounts of waste heat emissions. In these cases, numerous cooling loops are extended to increase its surface area and allow heat to be radiated away more efficiently.

Cooling Loops around a high activity Plasma Processing MoonBrain radiating vast amounts of waste heat into space.

Construction

The construction process of a MoonBrain is extremely similar to the one of a Jupiter Brain, albeit much, much smaller in scale.

Self-replicating nanomachines are introduced on the selected body, and are provided energy for replication by a partial Dyson Swarm in orbit of the celestial body's primary star. The nanomachines, coupled with specialized nanofabricators then start to convert, refine and reorganize the moon's matter into the colloidal structures that make up the computronium basis of the MoonBrain. Then, the colloidal structures are connected between one another, first forming the central energy core's QDCs and MSSs, followed by the rest of the nodes network. The cooling loops are then optionally constructed if the structure is supposed to be a high activity M-Brain.