Climate change is a slab of reality that weighs more and more on our planet and, by extension, on us. It is causing more and more frequent and intense droughts , storms, heat waves, rising sea levels and melting glaciers.
How to stop this wave of destruction?
A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) proposes to use “Space Bubbles” to protect the Earth from the sun’s rays. What exactly does it consist of? The geoengineering idea would feature inflatable bubbles, arranged in a circular shape the size of a country as large as Brazil, that would sit between the Earth and the Sun, blocking radiation from reaching our planet.
“We think that inflating thin-film spheres directly in space from a homogeneous molten material, such as silicon (molten silicon), can provide the thickness variation that refracts a broader wave spectrum and allows us to avoid the need to launch large structural film elements,” the authors explain.
The spheres would be made of silicon and other material, transported into space in molten form or graphene-reinforced ionic liquids.
A kind of parasol for the entire planet?
That’s how it is. To prevent further catastrophe from climate change, this shield would involve a series of giant space bubbles that would act as a barrier between the Earth and the Sun. It would be an emergency measure of what they call “solar geoengineering” , a very theoretical field of research. and little studied “which aims to reflect a fraction of the sunlight that reaches Earth”.
Unlike other similar proposals to generate a solar shield for the Earth, this initiative, as it would be placed in space, would specifically be sent to the Lagrange point L1 (the James Webb Space Telescope is located at the Lagrange point L2 , at 1, 5 million kilometers away), should not pose any risk of interfering with the Earth’s biosphere.
The researchers explained that this type of solar engineering approach would not contribute to the sea of space debris floating above and is completely reversible due to the physics behind the bubbles, which they say could be intentionally disrupted simply by upsetting its surface balance.
It is not the solution”
The MIT researchers stress that the space bubble proposal was designed to complement and not replace current climate change mitigation efforts, but that the day may come when such intervention becomes essential.
And since the bubbles can be intentionally destroyed by breaking their surface equilibrium, this would make the solar geoengineering solution fully reversible and significantly reduce space debris.
Considering that our current efforts haven’t done enough to avert the looming climate catastrophe, it might be time to consider an alternative like this in the meantime.
But would it work?
The preliminary experiment in the laboratory has been a success emulating the conditions of outer space. The probability that we will experience an improvement in our climate is high, according to MIT scientists. Experts point out that blocking even 1.8 percent of incident solar radiation from entering the planet would significantly help us reverse global warming in an instant.
Although solar geoengineering sounds to us right now like something out of a science fiction movie, it is already being used in the real world. For example, the United Arab Emirates has already used it to create rain in Dubai to combat the sweltering temperatures that hit the area last year.
The Space Bubbles research project is based on the ideas of scientist James Early, who suggested deploying a deflecting object at Lagrange points, and astronomer Roger Angel , who proposed the bubble shield.
Referencia: Press Release MIT: dropbox.com/sh/gk415yke8shtb84/AABLA5kYXUrrZfidUpPrUCCva/Space%20Bubbles_press%20material_May%202022.pdf?dl=0
