3 ms·
The launch volume looks infeasibly large in the foreseeable future, but I don't think the station keeping problem is that bad. Any sun shade is basically going
by Symmetry 8y ago
The launch volume looks infeasibly large in the foreseeable future, but I don't think the station keeping problem is that bad. Any sun shade is basically going to be a solar sail already and steering via LCD panels like IKAROS did should be sufficient.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKAROS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKAROS
- Retric 8y agoThe problem is you now need some actual structure rather than just some thin sheets / inflatable structure or whatever. Further applying even small amounts of force across huge sheets adds up while as you say it's acting like a solar sail. That is to say it's clearly still possible, just not as cheap as people are assuming.
- Symmetry 8y agoIKAROS handled that by spinning very slowly to remain rigid with centrifugal force. To be practical you really can't have one single structure but a swarm of medium sized shades would work much better.
- Retric 8y agoIf by medium size your thinking ~1km^2 then sure. But, much smaller than that you you start talking about billions of these things. Keeping them properly aligned and not shading each other would be a non trivial challenge.
- intrasight 8y agoMy proposal is to send up a robot, capture a smallish asteroid, and have it use the material to weave/spin out a shield. The robot sits at the edge and spins and weaves away. More robots would be employed as the shield grows. Honestly, I've not worked out all the details. I'd love to hear what others think. Is this just pie(sheet) in the sky? Or is this the salvation of humankind.