Hi journalists! Before I start targeted emails to journalists I've talked to before, I'm just going to put this out here and see if it works:
Now that Reflect Orbital https://www.reflectorbital.com/ has officially filed to launch their first satellite, does anyone want to write an article about what a stupid, useless, potentially destructive and harmful idea this is? I would be happy to be interviewed about all the ways this is a very very bad idea and why I'm absolutely livid that they're launching.
@sundogplanets Yes, this is probably some evil plot for a billionaire to become even more rich at everyone's expense, but at the same time, the winter days in Portland are way too short and I would pay a significant amount of money to have a space mirror shoot extra sunlight at my house in January.
@mikemccaffrey @sundogplanets This is the first I’ve heard of this project although I have heard of the concept before.
I’m sure there are a lot of bad consequences and inappropriate uses of this technology; but I can see one potential benefit to fight climate change would be to be shine light down to solar panels in the Arctic in winter to replace the need for diesel generators, which are currently used.
@ADMP @mikemccaffrey Their mirrors provide 4 minutes of light that's about 4x the brightness of the full moon. That is NOT going to do anything to power solar panels and it makes me incredibly angry that they keep telling people it will.
@sundogplanets @ADMP @mikemccaffrey Has anyone done the math for how long one satellite would have to provide that service to recuperate *just* the amount of energy expended in lifting it's mass plus the launcher to orbit?
I'm not an astrophysicist, but that doesn't even pass my gut level engineering check.
@PalmAndNeedle @sundogplanets @ADMP @mikemccaffrey If I'm not doing the math wrong (I very likely am), a 10-micron pure-iron reflector at low earth orbit would require all of 3hs of sun collection to pay back the kinetic energy it needs to be placed into orbit.
Of course, rocket launches are very inefficient and there are many other inefficiencies in the middle. Still, even a couple or orders of magnitude of inefficiencies puts you at two weeks of ROI.
@aeftaw @PalmAndNeedle @ADMP @mikemccaffrey Please watch this video, the guy goes through the math of how incredibly little energy will be reflected to Earth by mirrors like they are proposing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkjyeI0ykGM
@sundogplanets @aeftaw @PalmAndNeedle @ADMP @mikemccaffrey
It sounds like the illumination per area would be insufficient to even overcome the internal losses of the solar collectors, let alone produce _any_ net power. Which means you recoup your costs in approximately ∞T, where T is literally any unit of time you care to use.
@pieist What about day? Would it be quicker in minutes? :D