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"Anything space based and big enough to rival or exceed planet sizes would take some very interesting engineering and management." Actually I think this would
by rsync 6y ago
"Anything space based and big enough to rival or exceed planet sizes would take some very interesting engineering and management."
Actually I think this would be quite small and manageable.
A space shade shades more area as it moves further away from the Earth. Further, the percentage of solar energy we would want to mitigate would be relatively small.
A modest sized shade made of reflective foil, in a solar orbit interior to the Earths orbit, could probably be done quite cheaply.
- taneq 6y agoHow would you keep it in position? I’d have thought any effective space shade would necessarily also act like a solar sail.
- unchocked 6y agoYep. The solution is a stationkeeping orbit around Sun-Earth Lagrange 1.
- colanderman 6y ago> A space shade shades more area as it moves further away from the Earth. The moon can eclipse the sun in its entirety. Mercury is larger, yet barely visible with a telescope when it transits the sun. I think the opposite of what you said is true. (What you said I believe is correct in the case that the sun is much smaller than the Earth.)
- dumbfoundded 6y agoYes, it's a essentially a cone with the point at Earth. The circular cross sections only get bigger as you move towards the sun. Only reason it works with the moon is b/c it's 400x smaller and 400x closer. Cool fact is that won't happen forever, the moon's orbit is slowly increasing.