FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK NOOOOO
@sundogplanets this is literally Karl Pilkington idea
@sundogplanets Oh FFS…what‘s next?
Breaking news: in a surprising twist Reflect Orbital announced their satellites themselves will not be solar but rather nuclear powered. „By using nuclear power we make sure our totally safe satellites keep working just as long as the sun. Check out our lifetime-subscriptions at 20% off for early investors.“
@sundogplanets the mind boggles, what a crock of an idea
@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!
