Orbiting reflectors to light - night time football matches?

BWhite · 2005-03-02 12:09:39

Sounds like a http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id … rt=0]crazy idea - - orbit a constellation of reflective inflatable mirrors and focus sunlight on a football field during nighttime.

You would need a constellation of mirror sats lined up to allow the lighting needs to be passed from sat to sat as time elapsed.

Might make a wacky publicity stunt =IF= you could rapidly focus and re-shape the inflatable lenses in real time. A cluster of reflectors feeding a parabolic mirror might work to simulate a full moon. Use gossamer spacecraft and the launch weights would be modest.

Hmmm. . .

Remember the movie 2010 where computer graphics were used to simulate two suns shining on Earth?

Maybe Hollywood would pay for a second "moon-rise" - - not for filming purposes, CGI would be cheaper but for a real life PR stunt.

Humanity watches two moons rise - - side by side - - on April 17th to correspond with the release of that new sci-fi epic.

Cobra Commander · 2005-03-02 12:22:05

I was following it, albeit with some skepticism, until this:

The technology is also being used to create BioRange gauges that will be able to detect the aura of any particular person.

Uhm, what? You Russkis want to define "aura"?

Other than that, artificial suns/moons could be useful, even if applied to something as trivial as a football game.

I wonder how that might screw with nocturnal animals. :hm:

The stuff about mitigating severe weather conditions is also interesting, as much for the good it could do as the converse. Imagine blocking the sun over Iran, for example. "Give up your nukes or be plunged into darkness."

Muahahahahaha!

Edited By Cobra Commander on 1109787751

BWhite · 2005-03-02 12:47:22

A single simulated moonrise (perhaps retrograde?) shouldn't be too hard to accomplish.

Watching a dim full "moon" rise up from the western edge of the Pacific Ocean would be a heck of a way to gain the attention of nearly every person living in Los Angeles and San Diego and San Francisco.

Beyond mere spectacle, however, I see little practical application.

Cobra Commander · 2005-03-02 12:57:57

Beyond mere spectacle, however, I see little practical application.

It depends on how much light you could reflect back and how focused it is. If all you can do is create a bright point in the sky, it's essentially useless. If you actually light the surface to semi-daylight levels for a limited area that could be used for all sorts of applications. If nothing else you could use it to impose some semblance of normailty to the day/night cycle at extreme lattitudes. Havoc wrought with the local ecosystem aside, of course.

Many questions that need answers before any real conclusion can be reached, but yes, most likely it's useless.

SpaceNut · 2005-03-02 13:10:57

One of the many concepts of how to make Mars warmer and brighter. In optics it is about angles and as noted intensity.
A stationary reflector over the poles that would counter spin to keep the beam light pointed to a stationary mirror over the target area.

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#1 2005-03-02 12:09:39

Re: Orbiting reflectors to light - night time football matches?

#2 2005-03-02 12:22:05

Re: Orbiting reflectors to light - night time football matches?

#3 2005-03-02 12:47:22

Re: Orbiting reflectors to light - night time football matches?

#4 2005-03-02 12:57:57

Re: Orbiting reflectors to light - night time football matches?

#5 2005-03-02 13:10:57

Re: Orbiting reflectors to light - night time football matches?

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