There are numerous stars in the Milky Way Galaxy which have a black hole in close orbit around them. These stars are gradually losing mass as it is falling into the black hole, but in most cases the infalling matter is pinched and fusion occurs. Often these pinch-points are very bright in x-ray wavelengths, so these pairs are known as x-ray binaries. Some of thedonor stars have lost quite a lot of mass, so this method might eventually work.
This diagram gives a nice list of x-ray binaries together with their respective sizes.
I thought emission from accretion was from gravitational potential energy, not fusion? Also, I think the mass loss would stop as soon as it lost enough mass that the star no longer fills the Roche lobe.
But you are right about the Roche lobe.
Note, however, that many of the known x-ray binaries are quite small stars; if a star were near the lowest mass possible for a red dwarf, it could lose enough material over time to become a brown dwarf and cease fusion altogether.
The OP asked for “known science” not engineering. We’ll get the O2 from somewhere. Exactly where is beyond the questions’s scope.
Ice cubes won’t work; too much H2. No, we must merely find an O2 mass somewhere and haul it into place. With drones, probably. Unless you’re volunteering your family. I’d stake mine but they’re lazy sods. YMMV.
Fascinating. I wonder if a space-based gravitational wave detector would be able to detect that? On the one hand, .21 solar masses is an awfully small orbiter to be detected. On the other hand, already knowing the precise sky location, period, and phase, and rough masses, would make template matching a lot more powerful.
Unfortunately, 9 hours is much too low a frequency for ground-based instruments like LIGO.
