Asri-unix.887
net.space
utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!sri-unix!WMARTIN@OFFICE-3@Berkeley@CCA-UNIX
Wed Mar 3 13:53:16 1982
Orbiting reflectors
From: WMartin at Office-3 (Will Martin)
That comment from the Soviet publication I quoted (issue #120)
about "giant mirror relectors" reminds me of a query I had meant
to make long ago. For many years I have supposed that a sensible
use of space would be for cities to fund large reflectors
orbiting in such a location that they would reflect focussed
sunlight on the city at night in winter (or even during the day)
in order to keep the city warm enough to make snow melt as it
falls and keep any from accumulating. One would think that the
snow-removal budget for a major northern city for a few years
could pay the cost of such a device, after space industry is
commonplace.
Is this a feasible idea? Are such orbits possible for northern
cities, and would enough energy be reflected to do this? For a
daylight operation, I envision the inhabitants seeing two suns,
and doubling the sunlight should, I think, do enough good to burn
through cloud cover and keep precipitation liquid. Is this so?
What more immediate service to me of space science than to enable
me to retire my snow shovel?
Will Martin (St.Louis, MO)
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