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Re: Global Energy etc.



Easier said than done. The effective area to be blacked out would be 2.6
million km^2, but you really wouldn't want to shadow any inhabited region
even for limited periods of time. I guess you could put up 'filters' that
block a portion of the sunlight, but they would have to be huge--on the
order of the area of earth viewed as a circle--130 million km^2.

Such a tiny reflector at the L1 point* doesn't shade anyone. The Sun has
an apparent diameter of half a degree. The reflector Teller proposes
would merely be seen to cover two percent of the Sun's apparent surface
from any point on Earth. It's an old idea; many had it before Teller.
Nuclear power is clearly the rational way to go. Too bad democracy queers
the rational solution.

Leigh

* The reflector would not work if put in an orbit like SOHO's. That orbit
never gets near the Sun's apparent position. From Earth SOHO has an
apparent halo orbit, circling the L1 point. (L1 is one designation for
the point between a fictitious Earth and Sun where a particle would have
a one year orbital period. Because that point is not one of stability in
the Lagrange scheme, and because the real Earth's orbit is eccentric, the
reflector's position would have to be controlled by rockets. Fuel
consumption could be reduced by making a larger reflector, but there is
no way known to eliminate the need for these rockets completely.