Space Resources to Stop Global Warming: a Planetary Sunshade
- Paper number
IAC-20,D3,1,8,x60718
- Author
Mr. Ross Centers, United States, Colorado School of Mines
- Coauthor
Ms. Elizabeth Scott, United States, Colorado School of Mines
- Coauthor
Mr. Joshua Schertz, United States, Colorado School of Mines
- Coauthor
Mr. Alexander Jehle, United States, Colorado School of Mines
- Coauthor
Ms. Victoria Carter-Cortez, France, Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC)
- Year
2020
- Abstract
Global warming is the defining problem of our time. Soon the atmosphere will hold more industrial carbon than natural, and solutions to anthropogenic climate change will become one of the largest economic sectors in the coming decades. Climate engineering in the form of solar radiation management will be necessary to bridge the gap between the unendurable consequences of climate change and the eventual removal of anthropogenic carbon from our atmosphere. Rather than pollute our skies with sulphur dioxide or drastically change land use patterns, space technology offers an ideal form of solar radiation management with a Planetary Sunshade at Sun-Earth Lagrange 1 (SEL1). The Planetary Sunshade will stop global warming by uniformly reducing solar radiation on Earth by less than 2%, without further pollution of our atmosphere and with global rather than localized effects. The Sunshade will be a thin-film structure about the size of the European Union, and would mass tens to hundreds of megatonnes. Launching to SEL1 from Earth requires a ΔV of 16.7 km/s and propellant mass ratios around 50:1, whereas launching from the Moon requires a ΔV of 2.9 km/s and 1:1 mass ratios: space resource utilization makes the Planetary Sunshade possible. We present a simple baseline architecture to ease the tyranny of the rocket equation by constructing the Planetary Sunshade from lunar materials: mining equipment and power systems are flown to the Moon, lunar ISRU propellant launches raw materials to SEL1, and space-based construction facilities assemble the megastructure. Focusing on the audacious scale of the challenge, we argue for its feasibility, consider political implications, identify key risks and enabling technologies, and analyze mass, time, and power requirements for the baseline architecture. If we rise to the challenge, the Planetary Sunshade will become the hub of an Earth-Moon econosphere providing more economic and societal benefit than any other human endeavor in space. In a few decades, climate change will be the largest universal problem for the $170 trillion global economy. If we are willing to be a key part of the solution, the Planetary Sunshade can draw the resources needed to stop global warming and establish an interplanetary civilization.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-20,D3,1,8,x60718.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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