Have we seen this episode on futurama?
this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2025
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for solar, a 5km diameter solar farm might hold 10m square meters of panels. at 250w each, 2.5gw solar farm. 4 times a full moon, is 1/100000th the rated capacity (noon at equator) of panels, and so 25kw of power. At 10c/kwh electricity revenue potential, such a farm (exists only in China) could break even offering to rent night light at $2.50/hour.
Batteries charged by solar can deliver profitable electricity at night for far less than 10c/kwh.
If you just want more light somewhere, it would be far cheaper to do from ground systems.
What are the space laws for if we nudge it into the sun?
Fun fact: pushing things into the sun is really difficult. Short version: imagine spinning a pendulum, then trying to slow it down, except the pendulum is 100kg (200lbs) and moving at 87 Mach.
Long version:
Anything launching from earth will have a significant orbital velocity around the sun by virtue of starting at the earth's own velocity (~30km/s, about 67000 mph). That velocity makes it hard to actually reach the sun.
Consider that even the sun's gravity isn't enough to pull in the earth at that speed. Simply applying thrust towards the sun would have to amount to a significant portion of the sun's gravity to make a noticeable difference.
So to reach the sun, you'd ideally have to get rid of that excess orbital velocity instead. That requires a lot of force, to put it mildly. That kind of force requires powerful boosters and a lot of fuel. Of course, getting those engines and that fuel up there also takes powerful engines and a lot of fuel. But the larger the rocket, the heavier it'll be, so it'll require even more fuel...
There's a phenomenon dubbed the "Tyranny of the Rocket Equation". It describes the problem that, at some point, the extra weight required to make a rocket more powerful is greater than the extra power it provides. That basically puts a limit on how strong a given engine can get. There's a lot of work being done on getting them to be more efficient, so that limit is getting higher, but the bottom line is:
It would require an immense amount of resources to slow an object enough to toss it into the sun, and more resources to get them to that object in the first place.
Physics is a cruel mistress and a mean spoilsport.
A little Critical Thinking will tell you that this is either technically impossible, unbelievably expensive, or both. Probably both.
However, I encourage Sociopathic Oligarchs to dump as much of their money into it as possible.
Buy who cares? Money!
This entire thing is again stupid front to back, and for loads of money, of course
I just imagine the first places that put in in-door lightnig like "here now you can work later in the day" now they will be like "Oh look you can work 24/7 now it's never dark anymore".
"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
007 did it.
I'm trying to remember the name of the film.
Technically there were two.
-
The Man With the Golden Gun (has sun laser; never seen used)
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Die Another Day (sun laser is used)
They both happen to be my all time favorite Bond movies because they are absurdly over the top.
I think man with the golden gun is the one I'm thinking of.
Yes. Let's make the planet even hotter... Fucking morons.
If we could actually do this, couldn’t we also send up large Sun ray blockers that would help us control global warming?
how is that profitable? they won't do it unless they can make money.
Last time some rich fuck started screwing with people's access to natural sunlight, it didn't end well for him.
Reflect Orbit 2.0 Hacker Edition:
Move corporate HQ to Russia, place mirrors in orbit to block sunlight, then charge big $$$ to unblocked it. Profit.
please stop fucking with the delicate balance of nature, its the only nature i've found that works for me