Re: How to Cool a Planet (far fetched ideas)

"Ian Stirling" <root@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:44a3f51c$0$22100$ed2619ec@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ianparker2@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

simple_language@xxxxxxxxx <simple_language@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/27/science/earth/27cool.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

This solution can only be done by using advanced robotics to produce
aluminium of the Moon/Asteroids. Sending it up from Earth would be
prohibitively expensive, even assuming launch costs could be
dramatically reduced.

Actually not.
In context - with relatively modest reductions - say an order of
magnitude -
orbiting a few thousand tons is not prohibitively expensive for any
modern industrialised nation.

As gung-ho as I am for using space resources in orbital manufacturing, I'd
have to agree. A sunshade would have enormous area but be deceptively
low-mass. Use of space resources will only be necessitated by industries
measured in the many megatons.

Although...

These proposals keep involving glass lenses several meters across but less
than a millimeter in thickness. How are we supposed to send them up in a
rocket such that they arrive on the assembly site relatively intact? Even
if we do use Earth resources, space manufacturing might be called for if for
no other reason than getting the lenses on-site in one piece.

--


Regards,
Mike Combs
----------------------------------------------------------------------
By all that you hold dear on this good Earth
I bid you stand, Men of the West!
Aragorn


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: A possible pre Star Wars timeline
    ... Earth Crisis -wars over water and oil. ... space resources to save Earth. ... Clearly this is not Star Wars time line, ... Do you even know what a klein bottle looks like? ...
    (alt.fan.starwars)
  • Re: How to Cool a Planet (far fetched ideas)
    ... As gung-ho as I am for using space resources in orbital manufacturing, ... A sunshade would have enormous area but be deceptively ... These proposals keep involving glass lenses several meters across but less ...
    (sci.space.policy)