The fact that they're spelling this Earendil, not Earendel, makes me think this is a direct reference to Tolkien's work. It's pretty weird for dystopian industrial initiatives to be named after characters in a work whose most unambiguous message was that rampant industrialization was ruining the world.
FCC approves test of space mirror to light night sky
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Re: FCC approves test of space mirror to light night sky
#92Wonder what would happen if a hacker focused all ten thousand of them on a single area for an hour or two. Sounds like a really energy-efficient way to demolish a city. X Wing: Wedge’s Gamble (1996) by Michael Stackpole shows the rebel alliance using similar tricks during the battle of Coruscant.
At some point, nations are going to claim the orbital space above them as national territory and develop technology to shoot down violators.
Re: FCC approves test of space mirror to light night sky
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes but what if you could have a second moon, on-demand?
MAAS
Obvs "MaaS" capitalisation for the full stock valuation.
Obvs(2) a variant of this service has traditionally been provided for free by drunken teens. They might prove to be better and more thoughtful custodians of investment funds.
Re: FCC approves test of space mirror to light night sky
#94Earth orbits, low orbits above all, are a finite resource, and suffer pollution as every environment, with all this kind of satellites growing in number to millions, things can go badly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome Apart tecnical and scientific reasons (no need to use thousand or million of sats), apart big speculations (suspect is the main reason), many problems can be resolved in others ways.
putting mirrors in orbit to have (little) more light is like buiding city underwater to have more cool. ops this last will be way less stupid in the future...
To downvote a different opinion without arguing is same kind of attitude: stay fresh.
Re: FCC approves test of space mirror to light night sky
#95Re: FCC approves test of space mirror to light night sky
#96The fact that they're spelling this Earendil, not Earendel, makes me think this is a direct reference to Tolkien's work. It's pretty weird for dystopian industrial initiatives to be named after characters in a work whose most unambiguous message was that rampant industrialization was ruining the world.
Sounds like a morning star reference (via some obscure Christian texts) which I will draw further towards Lucifer via Latin. Do with this idea as you please.
Re: FCC approves test of space mirror to light night sky
#97> There are many problems with this proposal, including impacts these satellites will have on human health and safety, as well as on astronomy and the low-Earth environment.
> Flashes during mirror repointing could disrupt pilots and drivers. The light could also disrupt circadian rhythms of plants, animals and humans
Re: FCC approves test of space mirror to light night sky
#98Wonder what would happen if a hacker focused all ten thousand of them on a single area for an hour or two. Sounds like a really energy-efficient way to demolish a city. X Wing: Wedge’s Gamble (1996) by Michael Stackpole shows the rebel alliance using similar tricks during the battle of Coruscant.
I don't think 50000 60-ft mirrors at the height they intend to fly would cause that to happen. Not enough light gathering power. 50000 60-ft mirrors is about the same area as a single mirror 2.5 miles across. So the area of the mirrors is about the area of a city. You gather as much light as the city itself in regular daytime. If you focused all of that perfectly efficiently onto a city, that city would just look lik…
I think what you're missing is that they could all be focused in one spot, not spread over the city. If curved reflective buildings can melt siding, and mirror solar plants can melt salt, I'm pretty sure a city's worth of sun focused on, say, a college campus, could start a massive fire
Re: FCC approves test of space mirror to light night sky
#99One question I have is about apparent magnitude: given the satellite's small size (relative to the apparent size of the moon) it would have to be very bright to match the luminosity of the full moon on the surface.
In this article: https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/new-kind-of-satel...
> calculated that the Reflect Orbital spacecraft would appear as points of light with a magnitude of -15 [...] might damage the eye.
-15 seems ~10 times brighter than the moon (-12,6) if I got the formula right so it would indeed be very bright.
Reminds me of all the led lighting we have now: one evening on a random street I watched the cars, bicycles, shops, street lamps: all leds, yes a bit brighter and colder than the old bulbs I know, buuut the light sources being very small dots (with no diffuser), it feels very harsh to the eye, at least to me.
Anyway, even if it proves useful for something, it would join the long list of innovations doing one thing at the expense of everyone else (externality == light pollution in this case).
Re: FCC approves test of space mirror to light night sky
#100One question I have is about apparent magnitude: given the satellite's small size (relative to the apparent size of the moon) it would have to be very bright to match the luminosity of the full moon on the surface. In this article: https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/new-kind-of-satel... > calculated that the Reflect Orbital spacecraft would appear as points of light with a magnitude of -15 [...] might damage…
> Anyway, even if it proves useful for something, it would join the long list of innovations doing one thing at the expense of everyone else (externality == light pollution in this case).
That's a strange reading. What would keep the benefits from cheaper electricity from diffusing to roughly everyone, as they usually do?