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Now I'd like to know what you consider hard if launching a solar sail is not.

by lolc 7y ago

101404 7y ago
Let me reword that: it's do-able with current technology and at an affordable cost. Such a solar sail can be extremely thin, just needs to be reflective. So even hundreds of square km of surface are manageable.
PeterisP 7y ago
Mass change of human behavior is one option for solving climate change, but IMHO doing that takes much, much more coordination and effort, and is less likely to succeed than a "apollo project" to launch a lot of foil pieces / chaff in proper orbit to achieve a slight shading of the sun.
- 101404 7y ago
  I agree. Changing human behavior/culture is more expensive, takes more time, and is less likely to succeed. I disagree on the foil pieces in orbit. Sure, that would be much easier than a single piece. But it would be impossible to correct or reduce the amount of "glitter" once it is in an orbit. A single piece (maybe spaced out with holes or cuts) can be removed or reduced as necessary.
- owl57 7y ago
  I fear the opposite. The Apollo project is a symbol of the era when the wealthiest states of the world were obsessed with rockets. They are probably more interested in mass psychology now.
- muzani 7y ago
  It's not simply changing behavior. We're also telling people to cut down on things that are making money. What's worse is that the people who got rich on fossil fuels are telling the newbies to stop using them. There's plenty of incentive to just have people set up a solar sail. Plenty of people would rather live in an ice age than give up their factories.
gpm 7y ago
Colonizing mars. It takes more mass and the mass has to be "smart" instead of just some dumb sails with some station keeping thrusters attached. This is actually one of the best reasons to support SpaceX in my opinion. They are doing the R&D needed to provide a viable solution to global warming at a reasonable cost as a positive externality. Source on sun-shade working at 20 million tonnes - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_sunshade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_sunshade Sources on SpaceX intending to be able to launch far Cargo than that every year (note: I'm lazy so I didn't find a source that did the multiplication of 100,000 tons * 1000 ships for you): https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/09/spacex-plans-how-elon-musk-see-life-on-mars.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/09/spacex-plans-how-elon-musk-s...

Now I'd like to know what you consider hard if launching a solar sail is not.

by lolc 7y ago

Now I'd like to know what you consider hard if launching a solar sail is not.

Let me reword that: it's do-able with current technology and at an affordable cost. Such a solar sail can be extremely thin, just needs to be reflective. So even hundreds of square km of surface are manageable.

PeterisP 7y ago

Mass change of human behavior is one option for solving climate change, but IMHO doing that takes much, much more coordination and effort, and is less likely to succeed than a "apollo project" to launch a lot of foil pieces / chaff in proper orbit to achieve a slight shading of the sun.

101404 7y ago
I agree. Changing human behavior/culture is more expensive, takes more time, and is less likely to succeed. I disagree on the foil pieces in orbit. Sure, that would be much easier than a single piece. But it would be impossible to correct or reduce the amount of "glitter" once it is in an orbit. A single piece (maybe spaced out with holes or cuts) can be removed or reduced as necessary.
owl57 7y ago
I fear the opposite. The Apollo project is a symbol of the era when the wealthiest states of the world were obsessed with rockets. They are probably more interested in mass psychology now.
muzani 7y ago
It's not simply changing behavior. We're also telling people to cut down on things that are making money. What's worse is that the people who got rich on fossil fuels are telling the newbies to stop using them. There's plenty of incentive to just have people set up a solar sail. Plenty of people would rather live in an ice age than give up their factories.

gpm 7y ago

Colonizing mars. It takes more mass and the mass has to be "smart" instead of just some dumb sails with some station keeping thrusters attached. This is actually one of the best reasons to support SpaceX in my opinion. They are doing the R&D needed to provide a viable solution to global warming at a reasonable cost as a positive externality. Source on sun-shade working at 20 million tonnes - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_sunshade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_sunshade Sources on SpaceX intending to be able to launch far Cargo than that every year (note: I'm lazy so I didn't find a source that did the multiplication of 100,000 tons * 1000 ships for you): https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/09/spacex-plans-how-elon-musk-see-life-on-mars.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/09/spacex-plans-how-elon-musk-s...