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Can space bubbles reverse the worst of climate change? (tech fashions) - C C - Jun 17, 2022

https://gizmodo.com/mit-space-bubbles-climate-change-1849065455

INTRO: A team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology believe that we can mitigate the worst of climate change with… space bubbles. They’ve outlined a strategy in which a huge raft of bubbles, carefully positioned between Earth and the Sun, would deflect sunlight (and thus heat) to stop further global warming.

Geoengineering might be our final and only option. Yet, most geoengineering proposals are earth-bound, which poses tremendous risks to our living ecosystem,” a web page dedicated to the solution reads. “If we deflect 1.8% of incident solar radiation before it hits our planet, we could fully reverse today’s global warming.”

The bubble array would be made of inflatable shields of thin silicon or another suitable material, according to the team. The bubble cluster would be placed in outer space at a Lagrange Point, where the Sun’s and Earth’s gravitational pulls create a stable orbit. The researchers also said that if the plan becomes a reality in the future, the completed array would be roughly the size of Brazil.

They admitted that one of the main concerns with their proposal would be the logistics of fabricating a large film, transporting it into space, and then unfolding it to form the bubble raft. They suggested fabricating the spheres in outer space to minimize shipping costs... (MORE - details)


RE: Can space bubbles reverse the worst of climate change? (tech fashions) - RainbowUnicorn - Jun 17, 2022

lunar algae farms


RE: Can space bubbles reverse the worst of climate change? (tech fashions) - Kornee - Jun 18, 2022

Already the James Webb telescope has suffered damage from micrometeorite impact. One would hope that issue would be factored in early in any serious study.
Not to mention the inevitable deployment failures. And the proper accounting net greenhouse cost of assembling the humongous bubble raft structure.
It so reminds of occasionally revived 'serious' schemes for vast space-based solar panel arrays. Such pie-in-the-sky projects for good reasons never eventuated.