Space bubble proposal for solar geoengineering

[Geoeng Info]

https://senseable.mit.edu/space-bubbles/

Space bubble proposal for solar geoengineering

If climate change has already gone too far, what could be our emergency solutions?

Geoengineering might be our final and only option. Yet, most geoengineering proposals are earth-bound, which poses tremendous risks to our living ecosystem.

Space-based solutions would be safer – for instance, if we deflect 1.8% of incident solar radiation before it hits our planet, we could fully reverse today's global warming.

Building on the work of Roger Angel, who first proposed using thin reflective films in outer space, we produced an innovative solution that is easily deployable and fully reversible.

At our labs at MIT, we have tested bubbles in outer space conditions that could be one of the most efficient thin-film structures for deflecting solar radiation.

The bubbles could be manufactured directly in outer space, forming an extensive deflective raft positioned at the Lagrangian Point  between the Earth and the Sun.

We are an interdisciplinary team of MIT scientists from Architecture, Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Physics, and Materials Science working on technical and social aspects of this planetary-scale project.

Together, we can think radically to solve the worst case scenario.

Would you like to share your ideas? Contact us at

space-...@mit.edu

Principal Investigators

Carlo Ratti, Charles Primmerman, Daniela Rus, Gareth McKinley, Markus Buehler  

Researchers

Fabio Duarte, Nikita Klimenko, Umberto Fugiglando  

Advisors

Gabriele Santambrogio, Lawrence Susskind