thomas malloy wrote:
and Jed Rothwell replied;
I doubt very much that the Sun is putting out more energy, but if it
is we could easily fix the problem by spreading large Mylar parasols
in space. This calls for a space elevator, but the prospects for an
elevator are better than ever. It is now estimated to cost around $6
billion, it will take about 5 years, and it can probably be done with
materials that should be available in a few years.
First of all, I heard that Space.com has reported on increased solar
irradiance. Robin has added a new word to my vocabulary, this week
Dennis Prager used it, too. My spell checker flagged it, do I have the
spelling right?
As for your Parasol Fix to Climate Change, You should have posted it on
a science fiction list Jed. They just spent $100 billion and 20 years to
build the ISS. Based on that, just how many trillion $, over how many
decades, do you think what your parasol project will cost?
There is no one who would be happier than me to see a space elevator
work. If someone can develop a technique for generating continuous
carbon nanotubes, then perhaps we could develop a material strong enough
to spin the ribbon. Perhaps someone can comment on the strength
difference between a continuous nanotube and short nanotubes held
together by Van Der Waal's forces, but I'm sure it's significant.
Recently someone posted a Space Elevator idea in which the ribbon was an
evacuated tube with an iron strip inside it, now there's a idea for Analog.
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