![]() Mooted geoengingeering proposals include sucking carbon dioxide from the air, pumping gas into the stratosphere to reflect some of the sun's heat, brightening marine clouds to make them more reflective, and modifying the earth's albedo with white roofs or reflective coverings for deserts. Geoengineering has proven controversial, but the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said it is a necessary Plan B if temperature rises can't be capped at a manageable level. ![]() The public policy questions include whether geoengineering presents a "moral hazard" by undermining support for climate mitigation policies and encouraging people to see the shift away from fossil fuels as less important. It would also look at positioning and stabilisation of the bubble raft, shading capacity, cost efficiency, maintenance and end-of-life transition, climate and ecosystem impact, and public policy implications. The bubble raft would be positioned in the L1 Langrangian Point where the gravitational pulls of the Earth and the sun cancel out The Space Bubbles research project builds on ideas by scientist James Early, who first suggested deploying a deflective object at the Lagrangian Point, and astronomer Roger Angel, who proposed the bubble-raft.įor now the project is a working hypothesis, but the interdisciplinary team are hoping to secure support for a feasibility study that would involve further lab experimentation and analyses.Īs well as materials, the study would explore options for shipping the material from Earth, including whether it could use a railgun (a magnetic accelerator gun). ![]() The MIT team carried out a successful preliminary experiment by inflating a spherical shell in outer space conditions, and believe it could be one of the most efficient thin-film structures for deflecting solar radiation. ![]() The Space Bubbles would be combined in a "raft" approximately the size of Brazil The spheres would be made from a material such as silicon, transported to space in molten form, or graphene-reinforced ionic liquids. Read: Iceberg-making submarine aims to tackle global warming by re-freezing the ArcticĪnother advantage of this particular solar shield is that it is reversible, as the bubbles could be deflated and removed from their position. ![]()
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