Crazy Scientist wants to shoot mirrors into space using giant cannon

[n2doc]

Scientists to stop global warming with 100,000 square mile sun shade
Scientists claim they can fight global warming by firing trillions of mirrors into space to deflect the sun's rays forming a 100,000 square mile "sun shade".

Last Updated: 8:12AM GMT 27 Feb 2009

According to astronomer Dr Roger Angel, at the University of Arizona, the trillions of mirrors would have to be fired one million miles above the earth using a huge cannon with a barrel of 0.6 miles across.

The gun would pack 100 times the power of conventional weapons and need an exclusion zone of several miles before being fired.

Despite the obvious obstacles - including an estimated $350 trillion (£244trn) price tag for the project - Dr Angel is confident of getting the project off the ground.


more:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/globalwarming/4839985/Scientists-to-stop-global-warming-with-100000-square-mile-sun-shade.html

Methinks Dr. Angel has been reading too much Jules Verne lately.... :rofl:

[Robb]

1. This is why I'm not in charge of anything important

...I would fund this in a heartbeat. :rofl:

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. "a huge cannon with a barrel of 0.6 miles across"? I don't think that's the 'across' I'd use

I'd say 'across' means 'diameter', with a cannon. And I don't believe for a moment they'd use something that wide. "0.6 miles long", I'd say. Since they go on about getting electrocuted by the model, I think this must be a rail gun or similar.

[n2doc]

4. I think you are correct n/t

[Richardo]

3. ...and the recoil kicks us into the asteroid belt.

Think it through, Doctor, think it through. :D

[sui generis]

5. I don't like the idea but for real reasons

this is a real initiative, by the way, Jules Verne or not.

On the surface, costs aside, it's a great idea.

shoot a bunch of super-thin lenses into a lagrange point to deflect a certain percent of the suns rays and reduce global warming.

But here's the catch: if a meteor or comet blows through the swarm or it fails to deploy properly or it does the opposite: too much sunshade reduces crop viability or causes cooling but other changes in ocean or jet stream we have a pretty big expensive problem.

What bothers me about the solution is that it is a bandaid on a symptom. If we don't address the real underlying cause, which is a buildup of CO2 in our atmosphere, and the sunshade stops working after a couple of years we have INSTANT global warming.

Far better to look a permanent change in how we live on this planet: taking care of our environment, investing hundreds of billions in low carbon footprint technology and living, and creating industries with jobs that leverage the spinoffs of that research.

I'm against the mirror solution for that reason - it's not the "only" viable solution on the table and in a competition it's less considerably less effective than other less expensive and less risky solutions.

[Posteritatis]

11. I think we need both "bandaids" *and* permanent solutions here

It's not a one-or-the-other thing. Stop the bleeding and then reattach the limb.

A near-Earth meteor would be a speck to something like this anyway; anything big enough to do serious damage to it would flatten hemispheres anyway.

[Realityhack]

12. One has to wonder how much warming would be caused BY the project. n/t

[FormerDittoHead]

6. Don't laugh. They might do this in order to direct the mirrors into a weapon... n/t

[caraher]

10. Nah. It's just a bad idea

Wouldn't really make a very good weapon, certainly not for the effort that would go into it...

[leveymg]

7. Is it April 1, already?

[qazplm]

8. Is this guy Killface?

Frisky Dingo reference.

[Orsino]

9. And we jeer guys who drive Hummers.

Jesus.

[bananas]

13. It's too bad Gerald Bull was assassinated

He'd be able to do it:

Gerald Vincent Bull (March 9, 1928 - March 22, 1990) was a Canadian engineer who developed long range artillery. He moved from project to project in his quest to economically launch a satellite using a huge artillery piece. To this end he designed the Project Babylon "supergun" for the Iraqi government. He was assassinated by a gunman outside his home in Brussels, Belgium.

<snip>

The most common theories are that either the Israeli Mossad was responsible (due to the small-caliber, sound-suppressed pistol used), or that it was Iranian Intelligence VEVAK.

<snip>

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Bull