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That plan involves putting sunshades in L1, where most shades are visible from every sunlit point on earth. So you don't get to be picky, every shade shades eve
by Tuna-Fish 7y ago
That plan involves putting sunshades in L1, where most shades are visible from every sunlit point on earth. So you don't get to be picky, every shade shades everyone evenly.
There are other suggestions for placing sunshades in MEO. Each shade there is ~60% less effective than it would be in L1 (because of the time it would spend not shadowing any part of earth), but it is much closer, so putting them up there would be easier and cheaper. Those could in theory be regional.
However, it's been pointed out that sunshades would also necessarily be pretty damned good solar sails, so they might well make their own way to L1.
- beerandt 7y ago>~60% less effective Is that strictly due to time when it's casting a shadow, or does that take into account the geometry of the shadow cast and the flux density of the sunlight at each point (watts/m2)? That'd be an interesting calculation to see.
- peteradio 7y agoWhy would they end up at l1? Wouldn't they get pushed away?
- raducu 7y agoYeah, I guess with very thin shades reflection is the only way, maybe if those were thicker and good heat conductors, you could shape them like very wide triangles and radiate the heat just a couple of degrees to the side, still protecting the Earth, but experiencing a lot less net force. If station keeping is needed, I would think you would want to make the shades as big as possible.