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Re:Could a Giant Parasol in Outer Space Help Solve the Clima... by TriangleEdge on Friday February 09, 2024 @12:32PM (#39317641)
What material would this have to be made of to not melt?

Edit: I'm not that familiar with radiation and its parameters/properties. My assumption was that it would accumulate heat. I'll go look up if radiation is a function of heat, then I suppose it could become stable at some temperature. It's surprising to me that you can block out some of the sun from a good area on the earth and not have melting bits.

Re:Could a Giant Parasol in Outer Space Help Solve the Clima... by itishappy on Friday February 09, 2024 @01:28PM (#39318399)
It's not as hot as you'd think. Solar panels (highly absorbing) reach slightly over the boiling point of water in direct sunlight. Metals work fine, so do a surprising number of composites and plastics.

* Aluminum, Magnesium, Titanium, Berylium

* Graphite/epoxy, Aramid/epoxy, Glass/epoxy

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sci...

Re:Could a Giant Parasol in Outer Space Help Solve the Clima... by wmf on Friday February 09, 2024 @03:30PM (#39320108)
Reflective mylar.
Re:Could a Giant Parasol in Outer Space Help Solve the Clima... by thsksbd on Friday February 09, 2024 @12:54PM (#39317976)
Something with a black back to radiate the heat back out to space.

This is (very) stupid.

Re:Could a Giant Parasol in Outer Space Help Solve the Clima... by morsch on Friday February 09, 2024 @12:59PM (#39318053)
Mushroom. What other material would a parasol be?
Re:Could a Giant Parasol in Outer Space Help Solve the Clima... by croisillon on Friday February 09, 2024 @12:44PM (#39317841)
i hear it's extremely cold out there
Re:Could a Giant Parasol in Outer Space Help Solve the Clima... by kvdveer on Friday February 09, 2024 @12:48PM (#39317888)
It is both incredibly hot due to solar radiation, and extremely cold, due to the lack of atmosphere to transfer heat.

The sun-side of this parasol will be all melty, while the shade side will be extraordinarily chilly. Whatever it is made of, will need to withstand that extreme thermal gradient.

Re:Could a Giant Parasol in Outer Space Help Solve the Clima... by gruez on Friday February 09, 2024 @01:05PM (#39318128)
> It is both incredibly hot due to solar radiation, and extremely cold, due to the lack of atmosphere to transfer heat.

If the temperature of the moon is anything to go by, it's hot but not too hot. According to NASA:

>Temperatures near the Moon's equator can spike to 250°F (121°C) in daylight, then plummet after nightfall to -208°F (-133°C).

https://science.nasa.gov/moon/weather-on-the-moon/

Something like aluminum foil should work fine.

Re:Could a Giant Parasol in Outer Space Help Solve the Clima... by zhirzh on Friday February 09, 2024 @12:55PM (#39317985)
There's also the possibility of occasional space debris or solar flares striking the parasol
Re:Could a Giant Parasol in Outer Space Help Solve the Clima... by BizarroLand on Friday February 09, 2024 @02:47PM (#39319583)
Very minor possibility though as any space debris that is not already in a semi-stable orbit would most likely have been filtered out by the planets before making it to any location inside of Earths Orbit, and a space parasol would be fairly small on an astronomical scale.
Re:Could a Giant Parasol in Outer Space Help Solve the Clima... by squarefoot on Friday February 09, 2024 @05:49PM (#39321453)
> What material would this have to be made of to not melt?

I would just use a giant array of solar PV panels as screen, then build a huge coil gun nearby and use all that energy to deflect potential dangerous asteroids by throwing them projectiles made of collected and recycled debris from decommissioned satellites.