Swarm parasol

Actually, if this works and the tem[perature on Venus drops
substantially it would be because very little sunlight gets through to
heat the planet. At that time what you do is keep the planet totally
in the shade, and have smart mirrors in space reflecting sunlight on
the planet at different times. You would simulate the night day cycle
of earth by timing the mirror reflections properly and you would not
care what the spin of the planet would be.

Bill

--- In spacesettlers@y..., "Dr. Omni" wrote:
> From: "Ed Minchau"
> To:
> Sent: Friday, February 02, 2001 10:55 AM
> Subject: [spacesettlers] Re: Swarm parasol
>
> [snikt]
> Suppose the swarm parasol actually works, and you manage to bring
the
> average temperature on Venus down substantially. What would you do
> about the day? Venus' "day" is 243 days, retrograde; and the
orbital
> period is about 225 days- one side will face the sun for over 100
> days straight.
>
> To be plainly sincere, I see no way to deal with that using the
swarm
> parasol. It would be an "interesting" situation for Venusian
colonists to
> deal with. You would have a "summer-day" of three months and then a
> "winter-night" of three months - something like the winter and
summer in
> polar regions of Earth. I think that all the agriculture would have
to be
> adapted to be seeded and grown and sawed in three months, and then
people
> would return to their warm houses and stay locked for three months.
(Of
> course people would have to live in high latitudes to avoid being
roasted at
> "noon", I think.) As for wild life, perhaps some plants and
invertebrates
> could adapt to it. Also, supposing that some thousands of comets are
dropped
> into the planet and there is a Venusian ocean, perhaps it would not
freeze
> to the bottom (or boil to the bottom) in just three months, and
there could
> be a fishy fauna; but I would need some napkin calculation to be
sure.
> (Hmmm... Why not do that now? Assuming that the average dept of the
Venusian
> oceans would be the same of the Earth ones, something like four
kilometers,
> and assuming that you are receiving 1000 W per square meters during
three
> months, then the ocean temperature would rise, hmmmm... perhaps half
> centigrade degree in three months. Probably, the surface would be
hot as
> hell, but fishes in the abyssal regions would feel nothing, I
think.)
>
> That's a point where the "conventional" parasol definitely beats its
swarm
> rival. With a parasol in the Lagrange point in front of Venus and
another
> circular huge mirror behind planet, and assuming that you can
partially
> control the reflexive surfaces in order to increase or decrease the
amount
> of sunlight hitting each face of the planet, than you could simulate
a 24
> hour cycle of day and night. With the advantage of a "global time",
with a
> single timezone for the whole planet! ;-)
>
> We should leave the moon airless: more efficient solar power, better
> telescope views. We buld skyscrapers on the earth, why
> not "corescrapers" on the moon?
>
> And also the possibility of launching something into orbit using a
mass
> drivers without having to bother about heat shields. Or hauling
cargo
> directly from the surface using a space tether... Yes, and airless
world is
> much better for a space-faring civilization. But I think that I was
with the
> "real state" thing in mind when I thought about the swarm for
atmospheric