thankfully the us is the only country that has a sky so only their government’s approval is needed 😁👍
This is an important point, and partly why you’re not seeing ads up in the night sky just yet.
Let’s beam down more heat! We totally need that on our rapidly heating planet.
Lets send that heat down in a large vertical column piercing the entire way thru the atmosphere!
Birds can cook themselves in it!
Nobody will get rained on near this beam, so less big money tied up in umbrellas!
And think of the tornados that will form!
This thing will create the need for so much progress to undo its effects!
Brilliant!
It’ll only make a difference during the times in which it is being hit by a beam that wouldn’t otherwise hit the earth, since whatever it reflects will be offset by some shadow behind it. I wonder if, as a matter of orbital mechanics, it would be possible to make the satellite orbit in such a way so that it never casts a shadow and is always in the sunlight.
This thing will never materialize. It’s a vapor-project for stupid people to pour money into.
Why the fuck is every dystopian industrialist naming their shit after Tolkein? Does an artificial moon designed to fuck the natural order sound like something he would want to endorse?
They don’t have the literacy / abstract thinking necessary to understand themes and like the ‘vibes’ of nerdy things being cool now.
These corporate jerks see themselves as Aragorn but in reality they’re Wormtongue
Elon likely never read Foundation, and it’s frustrating that he’s getting credit for it.
I do firmly put that on the people not doing their research, though. We should absolutely be bullying the shit out of people for being disingenuous in this way.
Like many other things today, Peter’s fault
There’s a lot of fuckery afoot as far as space goes. There are even companies trying to get world governments to allow them to put satellites in space so ads can be beamed into the night sky. I made a video about it if anyone’s bored.
The good news is that the scientific community fought back hard against it. You never understand how badass astronomers are until you read up on corporations trying to arse themselves into space.
I support jettisoning corporations into space.
fcc is not a science based department. they should have no say at all over environmental endeavors
They don’t, which is why they can’t prohibit this satellite. It meets all their requirements regarding radio interference.
The Satellite should absolutely be stopped, but the FCC isn’t the agency to do it.
Does the EPA still exist?
Effectively not
The Federal Communications Commission approved Reflect Orbital’s plan to launch Eärendil-1, an experimental satellite carrying an 18-meter-wide reflective surface. The mirror would redirect sunlight toward a targeted area after dark, producing a beam roughly five kilometers wide.
The July 9 authorization applies to one demonstration satellite, not the enormous constellation the California company eventually hopes to build. Reflect Orbital has described plans for more than 50,000 mirrors by 2035, creating what it calls “sunlight on demand.”
oh cool, more supervillains appropriating Tolkien
Servants of Morgoth.
Why is the FCC approving anything related to space?
To make it look like it went through some kind of evaluation done by experts, instead trump just saying it is ok after a payment.
I was just postulating to a friend, that if we built a huge array of solar panels, set out in a pattern not unlike solar sails, and deployed them out in-between the Earth and the Sun, we could block an appreciable amount of heat, which might act as a way to slow down climate change on our planet. Additionally this array could be connected in a grid, making it a huge space station, and energy source, where we could potentially use it as a base to start collecting and mining asteroids.
And then I read about these dumb mother fuckers who want to redirect sunlight back at the earth, making climate change worse, all to replace a couple flood lights? How fucking stupid is the person who brought this to reality? Jesus fucking christ.
Someone needs to read the Dyson Sphere paper: https://archive.org/download/dyson-1960-search-for-artificial-stellar-sources-of-infrared
(The paper was written as a sarcastic take on SETI sinking money into frivolous research of extra-terrestrial intelligence.)
Cartoon Country.
A very unserious place with very serious problems.
Naw, the Simpsons was implying a far more useful sun blocking device. What the mirror is has much more impact and is in space.
So uh… Florida made “Geoengineering and Weather Modification Activities” illegal.
So are they going to launch that into space from another state, because one would think launching such out of cape canaveral would be off limits
“Geoengineering and Weather Modification Activities” illegal.
That’s only when “the Jews TM” do it. When its capitalism then fine! See they are still spewing carbon into the atmosphere in Florida but they haven’t banned internal combustion engines, and they keep burning coal!
i wonder how easy it would be to build something that can reach the orbit and collide with the damn thing to deorbit it, if this nightmare ever becomes reality
I’m pretty sure I’ve heard about this a while ago and the math just doesn’t math.
The illumination would last only a few minutes at one location before the mirror required repointing. Reflect Orbital says the technology could extend solar power production after sunset, illuminate construction areas and assist rescue teams working in darkness.
Flare guns already do this for a lot cheaper. They even come in a choice of colours.
The company has also argued that reflected sunlight could provide temporary lighting without diesel generators or permanent ground infrastructure.
Sure it just requires that you build a giant precision mirror array, launch it into orbit, and then constantly monitor and position it from the ground, but god damn if you won’t need a bulky, polluting flashlight ever again.
What an absolute fucking joke of a proposal. Yeah, let’s blanket the earth in mirrors so that we can light up some random construction site temporarily.
heaven forbid you need to illuminate two completely different areas of earth simultaneously. is this is the least cost efficient solar powered device ever?
Well, it’s true that if you need to illuminate a site for two and a half minutes but can’t build anything on the ground, it’s a
greatsolution. Is it the best solution? Maybe not. Is it a solution? You bet it is.We have portable energy sources. They’re pretty efficient. Especially comparable to an orbital launch.
Illuminate construction sites? With a flare gun? They have lamps, you know. And yeah, also cheaper
If god wanted me to use lamps, god would’ve invented a ‘lamp gun’. Since He didn’t, we’re just gonna have to make do with the tools god did give us, now pass me the lite beer and cover your ears - it’s illuminating time.
Yes, because the one thing we really need is more heat on earth.
Yah, I can’t see anything that could go wrong with this. /s
Emphasis on I can’t see anything
