Manuscript Template And Style Guide
2021 (English) In: Proceedings of the International Astronautical Congress, IAC, International Astronautical Federation, IAF , 2021Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
Space-based geoengineering has rarely been studied from a practical point of view, considered unrealistic as a near-future alternative to fight climate change. This study evaluates the feasibility of implementing a space sunshade in the vicinity of the first Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system by the middle of the century. The analysis considers the necessary technological development, the possible trajectories for the shades, and an approximation of the size and cost of the system. The mass of the system is strongly dependent on possible optical properties of future solar sails, so a conservative assumption was made for these. To counteract a global temperature increase of 1 °C the shade would be formed by 7.5x108 sailcraft with a sail area of 2 500 m2 each and a total mass of 4x1010 kg. It is argued that the sailcraft could be launched to a 2000 km altitude orbit, from where they will travel for about 600 days to the equilibrium point using solar radiation pressure. The total cost of the mission is estimated to be around five trillion US dollars, based on a launch cost of 50 USD/kg. However, the cost to society, environment and global economy could be two to three orders of magnitude larger, if global temperature increase cannot be controlled by limiting greenhouse gas emissions. There are two main technological challenges for this to become a reality: the low TRL of the solar sails proposed and the necessary development in the launch vehicle industry given the dimensions of the mission.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages International Astronautical Federation, IAF , 2021.
Keywords [en]
Climate change, Cost benefit analysis, Earth (planet), Gas emissions, Optical properties, Orbits, Solar radiation, Earth systems, Geoengineering, Global temperatures, Lagrange points, Manuscript template, Sailcrafts, Space-based, Style guides, Technological development, Temperature increase, Greenhouse gases
National Category
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Identifiers URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-316211 Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85127585835 OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-316211 DiVA, id: diva2:1686945
Conference 19th IAA Symposium on Visions and Strategies 2021 at the 72nd International Astronautical Congress, IAC 2021, 25 October 2021 through 29 October 2021
Note Part of proceedings: ISBN 978-1-7138-4314-6
QC 20220812
2022-08-122022-08-122023-01-17 Bibliographically approved