this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2024
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[–] magiccupcake@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

While it would be cool for it to appear the size of the moon, it is not necessary with a shaped mirror.

You can keep the same size in a higher orbit, maybe even geosynchronous, then sync the rotation of the mirror to keep it pointing in the same spot on earth.

Granted a shaped mirror that size would be much harder to put into orbit than a flat mirror.

[–] LostXOR@fedia.io 3 points 2 months ago

The 9km mirror I'm referencing is for a sunlight level of illumination; the moonlight mirror needs only be 14m in diameter (or 500m for geostationary orbit).