Technology

I almost wish this was not a practical impossibility just so we could get to see the headlines when some misalignment fries an island of billionaires like bacon.

Its also just fucking stupid.

You have two options:

One build an insanely, comically expensive series of mirrors to move solar energy to solar panels so you can power them at night...

OR...

Install twice as many solar panels on the ground. OR the same amount and battery storage, or any combination thereof.

Why put mirrors in space when you can SELL SHARES in building mirrors in space to redirect sunlight.

Worth trillions, don't you think? Not the end product - just the design and endless alpha model.

Shit... you think the F-35 was a complete boondoggle(*1), you ain't seen shit. Space is BIG. Price tags $,,$,,$,,$,,$

(*1) and it remains so to this very day

Space debris target.

I think there’s a couple of Bond villains with similar setups. Not sure how I feel about that, but felt it was worth mentioning.

Cut to: man watching in shock as his "mirror satellite" burns people like ants under a magnifier

Scientists: One desperate plan we are considering to combat climate change is a series of gigantic mirrors to deflect sunlight away from the planet.

These assholes: OK, but what if, like, the opposite of that?

Very useful on the off chance that vampires are real. Otherwise.... Less so.

Throw these guys in a volcano. Add the billionaires and tech capitalists while at it.

We had a solution for this MOONTOWERS

they'll start by selling sunlight at night, but we know that it'll end up being that we have to either pay to have sunlight in the daytime OR pay to not have sunlight at night.

Oh, I think it's a wonderful plan for the startup. They don't own space, they don't have any control over space, they're selling something that they know they can't possibly deliver because they would have to get people to agree that they're allowed to steal sunlight and space, and that would never happen. It's great for them. They can get some cash.

simpsons did it!

Oh fuck we're in a Futurama episode.

The Soviets tried something similar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Znamya_(satellite)

This isn’t even possible and the cost even if it was would be ASTRONOMICAL.

No.

So literal space lasers?

What are the space laws for if we nudge it into the sun?

I won’t lie, the idea of sunlight on demand sounds interesting… but then capitalism ruins it before the environmentalists even had a chance. (not trying to downplay environmental science here, just being cheeky)