William-Black on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/william-black/art/Orbital-Mirror-Assembly-393452576William-Black

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Orbital Mirror Assembly

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One of the first steps in terraforming Mars is the placement of large orbiting mirrors to increase the total insolation it receives. This would direct the sunlight onto the surface and could increase the planet's surface temperature directly. Here crews assemble hexagonal elements which have been lofted via the Martian Nexus heavy booster.

Image is part of a future historical setting, see my journal entry Orion’s Arm Future History, A Synopsis.

The Orion’s Arm Timeline Graph is to be found here: Timeline.

On the Orion’s Arm Timeline this image falls towards the end of the Martian Frontier era, at the very beginning of the terraforming program. See my journal entry Martian Frontier

An overview of terraforming techniques in the context of my future history is to be found here: Terraforming Mars.

Each mirror is composed of 499 hexagonal elements.

In the foreground assembly image the hexagonal elements and Nuclear SSTO’s are shown in correct scale relationship. Each hexagonal element is 1,104 FT across.

Nuclear SSTO’s are 460 feet in length, 90 feet in major body width, and 80 feet in height (excluding the extended radiator panels and stabilator fins).

To appreciate scale, view at full resolution: five astronauts are visible on EVA near the corner brackets at the corner-angle just above the (foreground, or nearest) Nuclear SSTO.

The material of the mirror itself is a thin aluminized PET film, no more than a few millimeters in thickness, mounted to a self-erecting frame which would deploy much like the unfolding of an umbrella.

Scale Note: I’ve shown a second, fully assembled array, to the left of the foreground mirror assembly image. This mirror is shown at an exaggerated scale for purposes of illustration. In reality the mirrors would be at such distance from one another in their orbits that they would appear merely as very bright points of light.

Orbital Mirror Dimensions

Element Dimensions: 1,104 FT*

Full Array Dimension:
31,680 FT X 21,120 FT

*Major diagonal dimension.

Model Credit: Space suit is a Google SketchUp 3DS model by Max Grueter -- retextured in Bryce.

NASA & JPL photographic resources used to create stellar backdrop.

All models are my own Bryce creations, constructed in Bryce 6.3 and rendered in Bryce 7 Pro.
Image size
4000x2177px 806.71 KB
© 2013 - 2024 William-Black
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Ludo38's avatar
Impressive !