2007/01/17 by Curtis Struck, Struck, Curtis · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0701513
Note and reference to work of Katz (1975) added. Original version in press for the J. British Interplanetary Soc
arxiv created 2007/01/25 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
There are many indications that anthropogenic global warming poses a serious threat to our civilization and its ecological support systems. Ideally this problem will be overcome by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Various space-based methods, including large-scale solar shades, diffusers or atmospheric pollutants, have been considered to reduce the solar constant (input flux) and the warming in case emissions reductions are not achieved in a timely way. Here it is pointed out that proposed technologies for near-Earth orbiting comet deflection, suggest a different kind of space-based solar shade. This shade would be made up of micron-sized dust particles derived from comet fragments or lunar mining, and positioned in orbits near the triangular Lagrange points of the Earth-Moon system. Solar radiation pressure can render such orbits unstable, but a class of nearly resonant, and long-lived orbits is shown to exist, though the phase space volume of such orbits depends on dust grain size. Advantages and disadvantages of this scheme relative to others are considered.