Space technology that can help us preserve our environment on Earth

[jerry66]

Have you heard about a special type of microsatellites that can observe environmental changes like sea level or melting of glaciers? With the help of that technology, scientists can approach the solution how to avoid global warming. Moreover, there is even a special type of sats that can track rare species of animals to prevent them from being killed by poachers.

[Solauren]

Yes, and they are being used.

It's helping, but not as much as it could as long as people in power (including corporations) ignore it.

[chimericoncogene]

You can put a million sunshades in high earth orbit to decrease insolation and partially remediate global warming.

Even pretty thick foil comes in at under a tonne/km2. A million tonnes (10,000 SpaceX Starship flights or one single 100-m asteroid) would lower solar insolation by 1%. The trick is deployment and stabilization, which needless to say is non-trivial.

[Solauren]

You can put a million sunshades in high earth orbit to decrease insolation and partially remediate global warming.

Even pretty thick foil comes in at under a tonne/km2. A million tonnes (10,000 SpaceX Starship flights or one single 100-m asteroid) would lower solar insolation by 1%. The trick is deployment and stabilization, which needless to say is non-trivial.

That man solar cells would be better, since they'd produce electricity. Problem would be getting the power back down cheaply with current technology.

[jerry66]

There is special type of sats that can do a lot of useful stuff for our environment. For example, I`d like to mention one of those type that can track rare species of animals to prevent them from being killed by poarchers. Using Satellites to Detect Elephants from Orbit is very useful and has a lot of advantages for these animals From stopping illegal hunting activities, to determining population densities or even help develop sustainable habitats for endangered species, satellites have proved on many occasions to be a viable detection method which directly helps wildlife conservation efforts worldwide

[JackWhite]

Yes I've heard about them. There are plenty of them and there are some sources so you can track their missions. Very interesting stuff if you ask me