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Eventually we're going to have to reduce the sunlight hitting the Earth because the Sun is getting ~6% hotter every billion years [1]. The Earth is set to become uninhabitable in ~1.6 billion years [2] because of it.

Here's what I think will actually make sense: put space orbitals and power collectors at the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point (roughly 1.5M km from Earth). This is readily accessible in terms of planetary distances, will involve minimal communication delay with Earth and if you build enough of them you can reduce the solar output hitting the Earth however much you want with little to no visible impact from Earth.

[1]: https://usm.maine.edu/planet/sun-getting-hotter-if-so-why-wi...

[2]: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/weve-got-15-billio...



Great, do that a million years from now, instead of distracting us from work to prevent imminent global catastrophe.


Why does everyone want these at L1?

The first time I saw the plans for the Starlink fleet I started wondering if you could use a fleet of satellites to manage incoming solar radiation:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18474244

Maybe more an idea for a science fiction novel than a serious plan, but I like the sound of it.




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