Sun shade

A space sunshade or sunshield is a parasol that or otherwise reduces some of a star's radiation, preventing them from hitting a spacecraft or planet and thereby reducing its insolation, which results in reduced heating. Light can be diverted by different methods. First proposed in 1989, the original space sunshade concept involves putting a large occulting disc, or technology of equivalent purpose at the L1 gravitation point between the Earth and Sun.

A sunshade is of particular interest as a climate engineering method for mitigating global warming through solar radiation management. Such shades could also be used to produce space solar power, acting as solar power satellites. Proposed shade designs include a single-piece shade and a shade made by a great number of small objects. Most such proposals contemplate a blocking element at the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrangian point.

In 1989 James Early proposed a space-based sun-shade to divert sunlight at the planetary level. His design involved making a large glass (2000 km) occulter from lunar material and placing at the L1 point. Issues included the large amount of material needed to make the disc and also the energy to launch it to its orbit.

One proposed sunshade would be composed of 16 trillion small disks at the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrangian point, 1.5 million kilometers above Earth. Each disk is proposed to have a 0.6-meter diameter and a thickness of about 5 micrometers. The mass of each disk would be about a gram, adding up to a total of almost 20 million tonnes. Such a group of small sunshades that blocks 2% of the sunlight, deflecting it off into space, would be enough to halt global warming, giving us ample time to cut our emissions back on earth.

The individual autonomous flyers building up the cloud of sunshades are proposed not to reflect the sunlight but rather to be transparent lenses, deflecting the light slightly so it does not hit Earth. This minimizes the effect of solar radiation pressure on the units, requiring less effort to hold them in place at the L1 point. An optical prototype has been constructed by Roger Angel with funding from NIAC.

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