Welcome to brain Stuff from house stuff works dot com where smart Happens. Hi Am Marshall Brain with today's question, will space mirrors really be able to cool the planet? Carbon dioxide and methane are two common greenhouse gases. Human consumption of fossil fuels releases billions of pounds of carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere every day, and a wide
variety of natural processes create methane. One of the problems with the rising level of these greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is that it causes the atmosphere to trap more of the heat that arise from the sun, so the Earth is getting warmer. One way to solve this problem might be to put mirrors or sunshades in space that would block some of the sunlight that would normally reach the planet. With less sunlight, the planet would get cooler.
Three approaches have been suggested. First, we could loft a single huge mirror. Depending on its design, it might need to be as large as six hundred thousand square miles. This is hard to imagine with current technology. Second, we could use thousands of large satellites, which might come in the form of space solar power satellites to block sunlight and generate electricity. Third, we could use a swarm of millions of smaller mirrors. One approach uses lunar materials to
create the mirrors that orbit far from the Earth. In another approach, millions of smaller satellites form a ring in low Earth orbit, much like the rings around Saturns, to shade the tropics. Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow the house Stuff Works. I Find app has a ride down at it to day on iTunes