These Researchers Want To Put a Giant Curtain in Space To Fight Climate Change - The Messenger

These Researchers Want to Put a Giant Curtain in Space to Fight Climate Change - The Messenger
Abubakar Idris

A group of researchers are developing a plan to build a huge sunshade in space to essentially block solar radiation and reduce global warming on Earth.

They are part of the Planetary Sunshade Foundation, which takes its foundational tenets on a 1976 experimental research paper by physicist Gerard O’Neill that argued space-based, solar-power satellites could one day supply Earth with a clean and sustainable source of abundant energy.

More recently, in a 2022 report, Liz Scott, Research Director for Planetary Sunshade Foundation Research, called the plan a "technically feasible and economically sound plan."

Now the foundation is doubling down on that idea with a slew of new research aimed at bringing what is essentially a giant curtain to pull across space a reality, according to Space.com.

The group argues that a space-based sunshade could offer a viable solution to manage solar radiation effectively. Morgan Goodwin, Executive Director of the Planetary Sunshade Foundation, believes that will help spur the end of fossil fuels, and keep Earth's climate below the Paris Agreement's 1.5 Celsius target.

The scientists envisage the space shade as a megastructure with a total area of up to 4 million square kilometers that would build on existing solar sail technology. That would be positioned at the Sun-Earth Lagrange-1 point, roughly one million miles away from our planet. Due to gravitational reasons, Lagrange points function as a parking lot for spacecraft — indeed, L1 is already host to the James Webb Space Telescope.

From this location, the sunshade could reflect sunlight back into space, mitigating the amount of heat that would reach our atmosphere, although it is unclear what effect such a project would have on light reaching our planet, or any other unintended consequences that might come from blocking out the sun, even in part.

The Sunshade Foundation scientists seem undeterred by these uncertainties, however.

"Our survival as a civilization depends on our ability to wisely and intentionally change how we interact with our planet," Goodwin told Space.com.

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