FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK NOOOOO
@sundogplanets Hey at least they didn’t paint it tacky gold…
@sundogplanets FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK NOOOOO
@sundogplanets for some reason, national governments seem to think that they have authority to cause trouble in orbit. What happens in orbit affects everyone in some way. Surely doing something as ridiculous as putting a giant mirror in space should have broader international scrutiny?!
@sundogplanets Ok, back of the napkin-style math time. According to NASA, the moon's surface area is roughly (rounded up) 40×10^6 km², or 40×10^12m². These sattelites are 18m×18m or roughly (rounded up) 400m^2. The moon only shows us half of it's surface area, which is half-illuminated on average (the actual amount of light we receive from the moon is a bit less than that due to the moon being present for less of the night when nearer to a full moon, but I'll ignore that for now). So we've got 40e12/40e1/2/2 or 2.5e10, unitless. If we assume the moon reflects 20% as well as those mirrors (this is generous towards the mirrors), we end up with 5e9, or five billion. That's approximately the amount of these mirrors we'd need to build to reflect as much light back to the earth as the moon. Due to the very approximate nature of these only the order of magnitude really matters, but it is still a ridiculous amount and not worth it. After all, adding a second moon to power solar panels would probably not give ROI within the lifespan of the sun.
What are they even trying to do???
@sundogplanets I would never endorse someone going full Contact on this thing's launch vehicle once fully stacked. That would be a terrible and illegal thing to do.
@sundogplanets how the fuck is this under the fcc's purview?
@sundogplanets and of course it’s named after something from JRR Tolkien….
@sundogplanets assume they are only licensed to reflect back to USA??
What's wrong with everyone? Jesus.
@sundogplanets wow that sucks total ass
@sundogplanets I hope this thing gets shot down with some ASAT Rocket by the #Chinese or #Russia, if the #EU doesn't have the balls and this thing isn't in a GSO over the #USA!
@sundogplanets We could band together to aim lasers at these....
@sundogplanets
Mmhh, the Name oft the satellite is from Lord oft the rings. Is Peter Thiel involved in this shit?
@sundogplanets Ah, for a quick Greenland defrost?
And the billionaires push the Earth closer and closer to Trantor.
@sundogplanets This was done before. Suggest you watch the documentary "Die Another Day". Some north korean launched it and when the Americans sent missiles to destroy it, he just aimed his mirror at the missiles and fried them.
The mirror was demoed at some ice castle in Iceland when he benevolently lit up just the castle at night to impress the guests, but then focused mirror to try to fry some british spy out to disable mirror.
Curiious which international body could stop this.
@sundogplanets can I just beat the unholy ribbons and bows out of today? I am so tired.
@sundogplanets turns out a great way to get billionaires sold on renewables is to add a novel source of global warming to the proposition
@sundogplanets I saw this in Die Another Day.
@sundogplanets This is really bad, but I also can't wait for some kid to log in to their system with default admin credentials & vaporize the white house or something with the unmatched power of the sun & continue doing so until the mirror satellites are made illegal, globally, forever.
@sundogplanets We really need the model rocket nerds to start getting into modeling anti-satellite missiles.
@sundogplanets what a bullshit cop out... It falls out of our purview. Time to take a little wider scope assholes
Want some reminders of how fucking terrible this idea is?
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/true-cost-solar-power-night-reflect-orbital/
https://darksky.org/news/organizational-statement-reflect-orbital/
Journalists: please write about how dangerous this is.
Lawyers (especially if you're based in the US): please help fight this, it will take legal action now
GREAT guess I'm not going to sleep tonight either. Maybe there will be auroras. I need to enjoy the night sky as much as I can now, I guess.
Fuck you, FCC, for approving this. Fuck Reflect Orbital and all the copycats it's going to spawn. Fuck techbros everywhere. Fuck venture capitalists for funding this destructive, useless bullshit.
@sundogplanets I just hope some folks hack it and deorbit it!
@sundogplanets [REDACTED] all the people who sponsored this shit.
@sundogplanets Modest Proposal: we get the best Irish scientists together to create a spud cannon capable of hitting objects in low earth orbit and then fire it directly into everyone responsible.
Preferably all standing in a straight line so we don't have to waste a lot of good potatoes.
@sundogplanets it's about as brilliant as getting the first man on the sun ... at night
@sundogplanets guess we will have to shoot it down.
@sundogplanets "we don't regulate the mirror so we are ok with it."
Then why do you allow it?
@sundogplanets they have got to be shitting us with this
UN is going to have to get involved - but U.S. will just veto it and do it anyway... 🤬
If this isn't going to be geosync... then this will affect other countries as it orbits.
If it is geosync - then we can hope the reflection won't be powerful enough to make additional units be not cost effective.
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If it continues - hope they provide blackout curtains for the world!
@sundogplanets how in the world is the FCC the organization that approves such an abomination?
@sundogplanets insert every curse word, in every language 😤
@sundogplanets I am beyond baffled at this decision.
@sundogplanets Wow, this is a truly terrible idea
Our world is a billionaire pedophile's toilet.
