Talk:Space mirror

Spaceflight Low‑importance

	Spaceflight portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Spaceflight, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of spaceflight on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SpaceflightWikipedia:WikiProject SpaceflightTemplate:WikiProject Spaceflightspaceflight
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Climate change Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Climate change, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Climate change on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Climate changeWikipedia:WikiProject Climate changeTemplate:WikiProject Climate changeClimate change
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
If you are looking for ways to improve this article, we recommend checking out our recommended sources and our style guide

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 27 August 2019 and 6 December 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): JChen1234, Ryans-usc, Ambarkho. Peer reviewers: Abdullah mughni, Haley.garland1, Mjkin.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 03:44, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Proposal to merge with Space sunshade

If you have comments on this merge proposal, please discuss them on Talk:Space sunshade#Proposal to merge with Space mirror (anti-global warming measure). — Lawrence King ^(talk) 03:59, 26 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

And another merger discussion eleven years later (in 2023) is here: Talk:Space sunshade/Archive 1#Second merge proposal. EMsmile (talk) 09:23, 14 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Are mirrors still being considered?

@Redacted II or anyone. I guess that now Space-based solar power is being tested the mirror idea has been abandoned - is that right?

Because if in Earth orbit why would you want to reflect a lot of light if you could instead make electricity from a lot of it?

And I understand mirrors would be harder to keep at L1 than sunshades - is that right?

If so we could maybe get rid of the disambig at space mirror, rename this article to that name and add hatnotes to and from Space Mirror Memorial. What do you think?

If Space-based solar power ever happens, it would probably be using solar panels, as those are likely lighter than mirrors. I can say that I have heard of some proposals using solar panels, but only one using mirrors. But saying which ones will be used is going into WP:CrystalBall Territory.

Mirrors are harder to keep at a given point that sunshades, because light, while not having mass, has momentum. For light, the force exerted is equal to energy/299792458. Mirrors reflect more light, which means they basically have a tiny rocket engine with a force equal to the energy reflected/299792458.

My advise here is to do as you said, but expand the article to include using mirrors for space based solar power.Redacted II (talk) 14:17, 16 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for quick reply - I have requested here Chidgk1 (talk) 15:21, 16 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

No problem. Thanks for @ing me Redacted II (talk) 16:55, 16 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]