Swarm parasol

--- In spacesettlers@y..., "Bill" wrote:
>
> 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
> > retention... ;-)
> >
> > [snikt]
> > :) ed
> >
> > Lucio

Sounds like a doosie of a project. Would it perhaps be easier to
build five hundred thousand pairs of O'Neill cylinders? This gives
us 125 million square miles of living space.

- Xenophile