"only about 35 kTon (or less) needs to be transported from Earth".
The word "only" is doing some seriously heavy lifting there.
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evil_andy Stick stick stick stick sticky sticky stick stick, Mon 24 Jun 2024, 20:53,
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Well the alternative is 100 times that, according to the paper.
I notice they don't mention how the fuck we move an asteroid to L1 in the first place. I guess we just pick one up with a Kerbal AGU.
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brb Learn Ukrainian and prepare for a referendum, Mon 24 Jun 2024, 21:33,
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Attach a mirror to one side of the asteroid with magic space tethers
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jonbob loves you, Mon 24 Jun 2024, 21:39,
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One of the drawbacks of these things being so Massey
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evil_andy Stick stick stick stick sticky sticky stick stick, Tue 25 Jun 2024, 11:09,
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Realistically the alternative to lifting 35kTon to L1 isn't going to be lifting 3.5MTon to L1, it's going to be not doing it at all and finding a more feasible scheme.
I don't even want to think about the logistics of shifting that amount of mass up from the surface. We don't have a space elevator or torch drive, so the only thing that comes to mind would be Project Orion, and I can't see Greanpeace getting onside with that, no matter what the goal.
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evil_andy Stick stick stick stick sticky sticky stick stick, Mon 24 Jun 2024, 22:11,
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It's only about twice the mass of what's in orbit now (according to the paper)
and considering how launch rates are increasing recently it's hardly the most problematic aspect of this proposal.
I quite like the idea of launching shit-tonnes of ash to L1, seems like a thing we could do rapidly.
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brb Learn Ukrainian and prepare for a referendum, Mon 24 Jun 2024, 22:43,
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We could try annoying N Korea until they snap and launch a nuke.
Plenty of ash to reduce solar energy, most wildlife seem to cope with the radiation, population reduction and low cost.
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FeralCatMan Unusual disease collector., Tue 25 Jun 2024, 20:28,
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We could do that without the nuclear war and radiation
by releasing ash or some other reflective/sunlight-filtering dust into the upper atmosphere.
I wouldn't rely on North Korean bombs riding Russian rockets to do the job either way. Might as well put your faith in fucking Trident.
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brb Learn Ukrainian and prepare for a referendum, Wed 26 Jun 2024, 19:16,
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I'm not sure I trust humans to do it safely.
Before they find a way of commercialise/weaponise it.
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FeralCatMan Unusual disease collector., Wed 26 Jun 2024, 22:01,
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So we let the planet burn because we can't guarantee safety?
These ideas are last-ditch contingency plans *just in case* we don't manage to save the environment through political and economic cooperation (lol). We are already commercially tartaruforming/gehennahforming/hellscaping the planet. These proposals at least offer a kind of terraforming that benefits life on Earth. Surely worth a shot.
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brb Learn Ukrainian and prepare for a referendum, Fri 28 Jun 2024, 17:54,
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Probably worth a shot certainly.
The obscene destruction is one of the reasons I didn't breed. Sometimes it occurs to me that they deserve it.
Then I watch 'Crime pays but botany doesn't' as we are kindred spirits.
Cheer up, 99% of all species have disappeared before and still came back.
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FeralCatMan Unusual disease collector., Fri 28 Jun 2024, 19:47,
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