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600 Mile Wide Space Mirror

Shiney plastic stuff blown up in a spinning balloon dealybob.
 
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Just like blowing bubble gum, but two part liquid plastic that hardens when exposed to the heat of the sun and is shiny. Plus you spin it to make it not roundy but more disky.

Cut in in two and you've got two 600 mile wide space telescope mirrors.

Could also use them for solar concentrators that if properly aimed could torch entire continents.

doctorremulac3, Feb 01 2023


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       You were going along so well until the //so scrap that// piece.
lurch, Feb 01 2023
  

       I'll re-word it. Stand by...
doctorremulac3, Feb 02 2023
  

       I question the practicality of that scale. Not even the problem of lofting that much material, just that it’s gonna get hit with tonnes of dust and larger particles every day. Also, if you’re really planning to use it as a telescope rather than a torch - how do you hold the instrument package at the focal point?   

       As for using it as a torch - I have within the past year or so read an apocalyptic short story where that was a major plot element. Not a telescope but a many miles wide solar sail, to be used to help humanity migrate to the outer solar system. Sabotaged by a radical group by refocusing some of it to destructive effect.   

       Don’t recall the author or know when it was first published. Was in a collection of other end-time sci-fi, I should try to find it again.
a1, Feb 02 2023
  

       Was it called Spare? I think it's in the bookshops now.
xenzag, Feb 02 2023
  

       No, that was a different torch job. Haven’t read it.
a1, Feb 02 2023
  


 

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