Space Ring Could Combat Global Warming

telstar writes "Though the debate continues around global warming, a new proposal suggests building an artificial space ring around the Earth to block the light of the sun and bring a balance to solar radiation, cloud cover, and heat-trapping greenhouse gases. The ring could be comprised of particles which would scatter the sunlight, or be built by an interconnected ring of spaceships aligned to block the light. The former proposal is estimated to cost anywhere from $6 trillion to $200 trillion dollars, while the spaceship solution would run approximately $500 billion. Halo fans rejoice."

Comments

Re:So... why a ring?

[carambola5]

Because the location you speak of, the first Lagrangian Point (L1), is unstable. In strict three-body motion, if you place the "disk" exactly L1, it will stay there. Unfortunately, any slight deviation will cause it to move further and further from L1. Perturbations to consider:

• There are quite a few other bodies you must deal with, so it's really not 3-body motion.
• The disk is continuously under solar pressure. This "disk" is essentially acting as a solar sail!

Stationkeeping under these circumstances is very difficult. There are plenty of other concerns... heat rejection, debris, etc.

It was a good idea, but not feasible... at least not as feasible as the ring idea.

Re:Debate?!?

[VivianC]

Because, scientifically, there is no real debate anymore over whether or not man is impacting the climate and causing global warming.

Your statement is true. The debate is over how much man in impacting climate change. The Earth has been through many, many periods in its history where it was warmer than it is today. This was before cars or factories. It managed to cool itself down.

There is still much debate about global warming in scientific circles. There is much less debate in the media.