Space sunshade may reduce global warming

[UM-Bot 10,125]

Submitted by Waspie_Dwarf: The possibility that global warming will trigger abrupt climate change is something people might not want to think about. But University of Arizona astronomer Roger Angel thinks about it.Angel, a University of Arizona Regents' Professor and one of the world's foremost minds in modern optics, directs the Steward Observatory Mirror Laboratory and the Center for Astronomical Adaptive Optics. He has won top honors for his many extraordinary conceptual ideas that have become practical engineering solutions for astronomy.For the past year, Angel has been looking at ways to cool the Earth in an emergency. He's been studying the practicality of deploying a space sunshade in a global warming crisis, a crisis where it becomes clear that Earth is unmistakably headed for disastrous climate change within a decade or two.Angel presented the idea at the National Academy of Sciences in April and won a NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts grant for further research in July. His collaborators on the grant are David Miller of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nick Woolf of UA's Steward Observatory, and NASA Ames Research Center Director S. Pete Worden.

Angel is now publishing a first detailed, scholarly paper, "Feasibility of cooling the Earth with a cloud of small spacecraft near L1," in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The plan would be to launch a constellation of trillions of small free-flying spacecraft a million miles above Earth into an orbit aligned with the sun, called the L-1 orbit.

View: Full Article | Source: Science Daily

[Picturesque Orion 36]

Intersting but I don't agree. This will cost a lot of money and many countries will need to colaborate. However I doubt that small probes will be able to cover a whole face of the planet. I think it will be easier to move the moon with super rockets!

[ROGER 253]

I was thinking that after deployment , the Solar winds would blow the whole thing out past Jupiter.

[vlanos 0]

anyone remember in elementary school when you would draw a sun you'd put sun glasses on it. this idea reminds me of that.

[ROGER 253]

Great Idea VLANOS. NASA should Pay you for having just as good an idea as Mr. Angel.

[mfrmboy 121]

If they put something like the moon or a big sheild in orbit blocking the sun we would be in a solar eclipse all the time right ?

Couldnt this cause an opposite reaction making the Earth cool too much reversing the global warming possibly causing another ice age?

What about the things that need the sunlight to grow like trees, plants,algae?

I guess solar electricity would be a thing of the past.

I would think we would need something more like a type of louver that could be opened and closed as needed.

Edited November 8, 2006 by mfrmboy

[manticor225 15]

"The plan would be to launch a constellation of trillions of small free-flying spacecraft a million miles above Earth..."

Trillions? Well assuming that each individual spacecraft costs at least a dollar to produce, we're looking at trillions of dollars. And I'm sure each one would cost slightly more than a dollar.

[Star_girl 0]

Yes conclusive proof the Earth is doomed. We cannot "afford" to save ourselves! (taken literally)

Next they will say we should "darken the skies" like in the Matrix to protect us from the sun...

Maybe one day someone will come up with a feasible plan...

[Leonardo 10,409]

OK, here's my totally unfeasible idea to complete with Mr Angel's.

Turn the ISS into a very large radiator. Use it to discharge the excess energy from Earth (you could beam microwaves to it or something) so the climate cools.

Can I claim my NASA millions now?

[brave_new_world 5]

I think if we used our manners and talked real civil like, we could ask the sun to please stop producing so much heat and to cool down a little.