The Lagrange Sunshade: Its Effectiveness in Combating Global Warming and Its Application to Earth Defense from Asteroid Impacts, Beaming Solar Energy for Terrestrial Use, Propelling Interstellar Migration by Laser-Photon Sails and Its Technosigniature
{"title":"The Lagrange Sunshade: Its Effectiveness in Combating Global Warming and Its Application to Earth Defense from Asteroid Impacts, Beaming Solar Energy for Terrestrial Use, Propelling Interstellar Migration by Laser-Photon Sails and Its Technosigniature","authors":"G. Matloff","doi":"10.59332/jbis-076-04-0130","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"One suggested method to partially mitigate the effects of global warming is the construction of a ~2,000 km dimension sunshade at or near the Sun-Earth Lagrange-1 (L1) Point. Opaque and transparent sunshades have been suggested for this application. Mass estimates are presented for both as well as a discussion of station-keeping issues. If constructed, such a megastructure would have additional applications. These include beaming energy to divert or destroy Earth-threatening Near Earth Asteroids (NEAS), space-based solar-energy production for terrestrial use, and energy beaming to accelerate laser-photon propelled starships engaged in interstellar migrations. Global warming may be a filter that an emerging galactic civilization might have to overcome. As such, technosignatures of extra solar star-planet Lagrange sunshades might be detectable by extremely large telescopes. Larger Lagrange sunshades might also be constructed by a civilization inhabiting a planet circling an aging star since stellar luminosity increases with star age. Keywords: Lagrange Sunshade, Earth Defence, Space-Based Solar Energy, Interstellar Migration, Technosigniatures","PeriodicalId":54906,"journal":{"name":"Jbis-Journal of the British Interplanetary Society","volume":"41 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Jbis-Journal of the British Interplanetary Society","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.59332/jbis-076-04-0130","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"Engineering","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
One suggested method to partially mitigate the effects of global warming is the construction of a ~2,000 km dimension sunshade at or near the Sun-Earth Lagrange-1 (L1) Point. Opaque and transparent sunshades have been suggested for this application. Mass estimates are presented for both as well as a discussion of station-keeping issues. If constructed, such a megastructure would have additional applications. These include beaming energy to divert or destroy Earth-threatening Near Earth Asteroids (NEAS), space-based solar-energy production for terrestrial use, and energy beaming to accelerate laser-photon propelled starships engaged in interstellar migrations. Global warming may be a filter that an emerging galactic civilization might have to overcome. As such, technosignatures of extra solar star-planet Lagrange sunshades might be detectable by extremely large telescopes. Larger Lagrange sunshades might also be constructed by a civilization inhabiting a planet circling an aging star since stellar luminosity increases with star age. Keywords: Lagrange Sunshade, Earth Defence, Space-Based Solar Energy, Interstellar Migration, Technosigniatures
期刊介绍:
The Journal of the British Interplanetary Society (JBIS) is a technical scientific journal, first published in 1934. JBIS is concerned with space science and space technology. The journal is edited and published monthly in the United Kingdom by the British Interplanetary Society.
Although the journal maintains high standards of rigorous peer review, the same with other journals in astronautics, it stands out as a journal willing to allow measured speculation on topics deemed to be at the frontiers of our knowledge in science. The boldness of journal in this respect, marks it out as containing often speculative but visionary papers on the subject of astronautics.