EEVblog 1637: Solar Freakin' Space Mirrors! - Reflect Orbital DEBUNKED
EEVblogCited 4× on HN, 2024-2026
112K views · 2 years ago · commentary · news
EEVblog's Dave Jones critiques Reflect Orbital's plan to sell sunlight to solar farms after dark using orbital mirrors. He walks through the numbers to show the idea does not work out.
HN cites it as a debunking whenever the space mirror startup comes up, as a TL;DW that the design is impractical.
32:01EEVblog #632 - Solar Roadways Are RUBBISH!
EEVblog
543K views • 12 years ago
28:46Space Shades: Humanity's Last Hope | Answers With Joe
Joe Scott
1.1M views • 6 years ago
21:15The REAL Possibility of Mapping Alien Planets!
PBS Space Time
778K views • 4 years ago
23:32The Solar Gravitational Lens will Map Exoplanets. Seriously.
Launch Pad Astronomy
582K views • 6 years ago
30:14Power Satellites & Space Based Solar Power
Isaac Arthur
254K views • 8 years ago
31:12The Insane Engineering of James Webb Telescope
Real Engineering
8.8M views • 4 years ago
11:01Pulling Clear Images Directly Off Satellites | GOES-15,16,17 and Himawari 8 HRIT
The Thought Emporium
635K views • 8 years ago
28:11Why Everyone Is Talking About Data Centers In Space
Scott Manley
408K views • 10 months ago
16:37Does It Make Sense To Put Data Centers In Space? Can They Really Cost Less To Operate?
Scott Manley
502K views • 2 years ago
18:07Spinlaunch: BUSTED!
Thunderf00t
851K views • 4 years ago
43:15DEBUNKING STARLINK
Common Sense Skeptic
717K views • 5 years ago
17:00Spinlaunch: BUSTED (Part 2)
Thunderf00t
472K views • 4 years ago
19:59EEVblog 1547 (Part 1) - Contacting the Voyager 2 Space Probe
EEVblog
71K views • 3 years ago
31:46Starlink: BUSTED!! + ALL other Failed Musk promises!
Thunderf00t
486K views • 5 years ago
3:50The Energy Vault is a Dumb Idea, Here's Why
Adam Something
4.7M views • 4 years ago
28:59SpaceX: BUSTED!! (Part 1)
Thunderf00t
455K views • 5 years ago
24:30Is It Really Impossible To Cool A Datacenter In Space?
Scott Manley
1.1M views • 7 months ago
23:53Energy Vault -BUSTED!
Thunderf00t
749K views • 7 years ago
1:32:00You are being misled about renewable energy technology.
Technology Connections
5M views • 9 months ago
29:52Turning Earth Into a Telescope | The Terrascope
Cool Worlds
613K views • 7 years ago
4 comments from Hacker News
First, they don't exist and 10k of them will never exist. Second, nothing would happen, the power will be minuscule and last for a very short time focused on such a small patch. see: ▶ this video
YT video going into the math and physics involved: ▶ this video TL;DW: not practical in it's current design.
Found a rather... skeptical take (I'd argue it's more of a takedown)[0]. A bit crazy how far off the math is from viability, for a company that someone actually invested money in. Impressive salesmanship though. [0] ▶ this video
This has long been debunked e.g. by Thunderf00t ( link ) and EEVblog ( ▶ this video ) It comes as no surprise this won't work when you imagine 1) where you have to put the mirrors: either in low orbit so as to keep light dispersion low and the apparent mirror size from the ground big—but now you have the problem that the mirrors move with high speed relative to the ground, and the time frame where you can still reflect light before entering into Earth's shadow is very short. Or you put them into a higher orbit so they can reflect light for a longer time, but now the light spot that arrives on the ground is even more dispersed 2) how big these mirrors can practically become, and how little light there will be when you have a, say, 100m² mirror hundreds or even thousands of kilometers away.