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Space sunshade

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Earth shield to reduce sunlight

The basic function of a space lens to mitigate global warming. A 1,000-kilometre diameter lens is sufficient, and much smaller than what is shown in this simplified image. As a Fresnel lens it would be only a few millimeters thick.<br>A space sunshade or sunshield is something that diverts or otherwise reduces some of the Sun's radiation, preventing it from hitting the Earth and thereby reducing its insolation, which results in reduced heating. Light can be diverted by different methods. First proposed in 1989, another space sunshade concept involves putting a large occulting disc, or technology of equivalent purpose, between the Earth and Sun.

A sunshade could potentially be one climate engineering method for mitigating global warming through solar radiation management, because internationally negotiated reductions in carbon emissions may be insufficient to stem climate change.[1][2] Sunshades could also be used to produce space solar power, acting as solar power satellites. Proposed shade designs include a single-piece shade and a shade made by a great number of small objects. Most such proposals contemplate a blocking element at the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrangian point.

Modern proposals are based on some form of distributed sunshade composed of lightweight transparent elements or inflatable "space bubbles" manufactured in space to reduce the cost of launching massive objects to space.[3][4] However it would cost trillions of dollars and no prototype has yet been launched.[5] Critics also argue that building it would be too slow to prevent dangerous levels of global warming.[6]

Proposed designs<br>[edit]

Cloud of small spacecraft<br>[edit]

One proposed sunshade would be composed of 16 trillion small disks at the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrangian point, 1.5 million kilometers from Earth and between it and the Sun. Each disk is proposed to have a 0.6-meter diameter and a thickness of about 5 micrometers. The mass of each disk would be about a gram, adding up to a total of almost 20 million tonnes.[7] Such a group of small sunshades that blocks 2% of the sunlight, deflecting it off into space, would be enough to halt global warming.[8] If 100 tonnes of disks were launched to low Earth orbit every day, it would take 550 years to launch all of them.

The individual autonomous flyers building up the cloud of sunshades are proposed not to reflect the sunlight but rather to be transparent lenses, deflecting the light slightly so it does not hit Earth. This minimizes the effect of solar radiation pressure on the units, requiring less effort to hold them in place at the L1 point. An optical prototype has been constructed by Roger Angel with funding from NIAC.[9]

The remaining solar pressure and the fact that the L1 point is one of unstable equilibrium, easily disturbed by the wobble of the Earth due to gravitational effects from the Moon, requires the small autonomous flyers to be capable of maneuvering themselves to hold position. A suggested solution is to place mirrors capable of rotation on the surface of the flyers. By using the solar radiation pressure on the mirrors as solar sails and tilting them in the right direction, the flyer will be capable of altering its speed and direction to keep in position.[10]

Such a group of sunshades would need to occupy an area of about 3.8 million square kilometers if placed at the L1 point[10] (see other lower disc size estimates below).

It would still take years to launch enough of the disks into orbit to have any effect. This means a long lead time. Roger Angel of the University of Arizona[7] presented the idea for a sunshade at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in April 2006 and won a NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts grant for further research in July 2006. Creating this sunshade in space was estimated to cost in excess of US$130 billion over 20 years with an estimated lifetime of 50-100 years.[11] Thus leading Professor Angel to conclude that "the sunshade is no substitute for developing renewable energy, the only permanent solution. A similar massive level of technological innovation and financial investment could ensure that. But if the planet gets into an abrupt climate crisis that can only be fixed by cooling, it would be good to be ready with some shading solutions that have been worked out."[10][12]

Researchers from the University of Stuttgart, Institute of Space Systems described a roadmap for the development, construction and transport of an international planetary sun shield (IPSS) at the Lagrange point 1 in 2021, which would also be a photovoltaic plant. Here, too, as with Hermann Oberth, production on the Moon, the use of an electromagnetic Moon slingshot (lunar coilgun) and...