In an astronomical engineering approach to mitigating climate change, researchers calculate how dust could be shot from the Moon into space to dampen the Sun’s rays.
CREDIT: BEN BROMLEY, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)
In an astronomical engineering approach to mitigating climate change, the researchers calculated how dust could be shot from the Moon into space to dampen the Sun’s rays.
#####
Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000133
Post title: Dust is like a sun shield
Author countries: USA
Expense: The University of Utah Office of University Studies has provided a grant to SHK co-authors through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (http://our.utah.edu/research-scholarship-opportunities/urop/) . The sponsor(s) had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, publication decision, or manuscript preparation.
MAGAZINE
Climate PLOS
DOI
ARTICLE TITLE
Dust is like a sun shield
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
8-Feb-2023
REPORT REPORT
The authors have stated that no competing interests exist.
abstract
We review dust placed near the Earth-Sunfirst Lagrange point as a possible climate change mitigation measure. Our calculations include variations in particle properties and orbital solutions with lunar and planetary perturbations. To achieve a sunlight attenuation of 1.8%, which equates to about 6 eclipsed days per year, the dust volume in the scenarios we consider must exceed 10ten Kg. More promising methods include using fine, highly porous particles to increase killing efficiency per unit mass and launching the material in directed rays from a platform orbiting L.first. A simpler approach is to push dust particles off the surface of the Moon in a free orbit towards L.first, providing shade for several days or more. Advantages over an Earth-based launch include a ready dust pool on the lunar surface and less kinetic energy needed to achieve a sun-shielding orbit.
HT/Frazier
Related
