EEVblog 1637: Solar Freakin' Space Mirrors! - Reflect Orbital DEBUNKED

What people said

reader9274 · 2026-07 · Criticism

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: [VIDEO]

Read the original HN comment ↗

sxp · 2025-02 · Criticism

YT video going into the math and physics involved: [VIDEO] TL;DW: not practical in it's current design.

Read the original HN comment ↗

DemocracyFTW2 · 2024-10 · Criticism

This has long been debunked e.g. by Thunderf00t ( [LINK] ) and EEVblog ( [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.

Read the original HN comment ↗