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Wow. I’m an astronomer and somehow I never learned this! Thank you for the link! Of course a solar powered satellite can’t be parked in the shade. Can’t believ
by tomr_stargazer 5y ago
Wow. I’m an astronomer and somehow I never learned this! Thank you for the link!
Of course a solar powered satellite can’t be parked in the shade. Can’t believe I never thought about that.
- baq 5y agoIt can, it has batteries, but you don’t want to mess with thermals on that thing.
- JohnBooty 5y agoMy first thought is, "Why didn't they eschew solar power entirely and 'simply' park it in the shade?" Surely they considered that, and the wins would have been massive -- no sunshields needed. So I'm sure the downsides must have been massive as well. Not enough plutonium fuel, or perhaps it just wouldn't provide enough power over the life of the mission. And of course the radioactive fuel would generate its own heat as well. Now I need to find out more about that decision.... edit: Another commenter mentioned, "The earth's shadow never reaches L2 anyhow - it's only penumbra at that distance since the angular size of the earth is smaller then the angular size of the Sun." If that's correct, then there was never truly an option of "parking it in the shade" anyway.
- willis936 5y agoThe dark side of the Earth is very bright in IR. Getting far away from the Earth and moon makes them dimmer. Also, going for L2 makes sure the Earth, moon, and Sun are all always in the same direction, so the sun shield will block all significant IR sources.