Hate to disappoint, but it’s far more than you could possibly imagine. You could dump the equivalent mass of the entire human civilization, every single person and everything we’ve ever made, on the Moon and it wouldn’t have a noticeable effect.
Hate to disappoint, but it’s far more than you could possibly imagine. You could dump the equivalent mass of the entire human civilization, every single person and everything we’ve ever made, on the Moon and it wouldn’t have a noticeable effect.
And the gravitational pull of all the other planets. I’m sure Jupiter is totally cool with us trying to precisely align and balance a satellite swarm on the point of a needle.
Even if the US and EU pony up the not insignificant amount of cash to do it, there’s still nothing that can put 1000t into orbit, let alone L1. And splitting it up into 100t segments isn’t a solution, since L1 is unstable. The segments will need power, thrusters, gyros, propellant and guidance for station-keeping, so there goes a large chunk of your mass budget. To compensate for that, you need more mirrors. And they need to be continuously replaced as they break down or run out of propellant.
I took my old gaming rig and set it up in the living room. Hooked it straight to the TV, got a wireless keyboard and 4 controllers. Couch gaming, emulators, streaming, whatever the hell I want.
Definitely a mission to keep an eye on, but when Orion drive?