What the fuck are we doing as a species?
FCC approves test of space mirror to light night sky
111–120 of 164 posts
Re: FCC approves test of space mirror to light night sky
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
With global warming, trillions upon trillions of acres of immensely fertile bogland, in Northern Canada is thawing. The problem is, global warming doesn't affect daylight. 4 hours of "the sun barely makes it over the horizon" means no crops, no matter if the temp is above 0C in September. Obviously this satellite isn't viable, but all things start small. Large tracts of land could be illuminated. But of course, I que…
If sattelites can reflect enough light to make an impact on e.g. global warming, they can also reflect enough to circumvent it. Point them back at the sun or into space and in theory it redirects the same amount of energy away from the earth as it would pointing towards it. That said, I'm (armchair) confident it'll be good for moonlight-level illumination on a local area at best. They'll need to scale up to thousands…
This is where people who think space access is only for satellites and LEO space stations have no imagination. We’re at a place now where if global warming did suddenly start to run away, within a year, we could realistically launch enough solar shades to meaningfully impact the situation. It’s far fetched, but this is why innovation in general is important. Not for what we know now, but for all the unknown ways it could be used in the future.
Re: FCC approves test of space mirror to light night sky
#113So we've got this problem of the atmosphere trapping too much heat from solar radiation hitting the surface and the plan is to increase the amount of solar radiation hitting the surface?
Exactly. We don't have enough energy apparently and need more warming.
Re: FCC approves test of space mirror to light night sky
#114Wonder 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.
ASAT already exists and multiple countries have already shot down (their own, defunct) satellites.
Re: FCC approves test of space mirror to light night sky
#115One 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?
I guess you can have both positive and negative externalities.
I went back to re-read reflectorbital.com, indeed if you're only lighting a solar farm in the middle of nowhere maybe the light pollution is not so bad outside of the targeted zone.
Still fells like a complicated solution to me. Imo we need more storage innovation and investment, a lot more. We know we'll have more and more intermittent renewables electricity production, we just have to store it.
Re: FCC approves test of space mirror to light night sky
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
That would be fairly nonsense. There's _very_ few orbits that can stick over a particular place, and it's only places on the equator. We'd be giving up 99+% of useful orbits.
I think most current wars in progress have much less logical reasons for happening
It's possible, it would just be _very_ dumb. It'd also turn into just...shooting them all down, restrictions of who anything is over wouldn't survive.
Re: FCC approves test of space mirror to light night sky
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
If sattelites can reflect enough light to make an impact on e.g. global warming, they can also reflect enough to circumvent it. Point them back at the sun or into space and in theory it redirects the same amount of energy away from the earth as it would pointing towards it. That said, I'm (armchair) confident it'll be good for moonlight-level illumination on a local area at best. They'll need to scale up to thousands…
For those purposes, why would it need to be mirrors? We don't care to coherently reflect the light; we just want to block it. (For reference, I think all of these are likely to be somewhere between moderately and incredibly bad ideas...)
> We don't care to coherently reflect the light; we just want to block it.
The energy has to go somewhere. If you're not reflecting it you're absorbing it and you eventually have to do something else with it.
Re: FCC approves test of space mirror to light night sky
#118How is this under the FCC’s authority?
It should be under the EPA's authority. This has the potential to disrupt animal behavior within the illuminated area if it truly is as bright as a full moon.
Re: FCC approves test of space mirror to light night sky
#119I do wonder if capital is so cheap or wealth inequality is actually much bigger problem then we thought so that excess capital ends up in ideas like this.
Re: FCC approves test of space mirror to light night sky
#120> SpaceX filed with the FCC for one million more satellites
Sure, that's only gonna cost a couple quadrillion dollars or so.