Back in 1945 , Life clip reveal to its reader how “ U.S. Army technical experts come up with the stupefying fact that German scientists had seriously plan to build a ‘ sunshine gun ’ . ”
This , the magazine explained , would have been a mammoth orbital mirror that would “ pore the sunshine ’s light beam to a char detail on the ground ’s aerofoil . ” The German army , readers were told , “ hope to use such a mirror to burn an foe city or to churn part of an sea . ”
The idea had been in the first place proposed by the seminal projectile scientist , Hermann Oberth , in 1923 . As late as 1957 , he was still convinced that his blank mirror would become a reality .
“ My blank space mirror , ” he wrote , “ is like the helping hand mirror that schoolboys use to flash circles of sunshine on the ceiling of their classroom . A sudden beam flashed on the instructor ’s typeface may bring unpleasant reactions … I was a schoolteacher farsighted enough to have gather up certain data point on the case . ”
living cartridge holder could only speculate on how the German space mirror could be construct . Its editors and illustrator opine it tack from preassemble sections . These would eventually form “ a slightly concave disk one mile in diameter . ” Life thought such a artificial satellite should be built in a geosynchronous orbit . “ The Germans , ” the editors sniffed , “ complicating the job , be after to build their mirror at 5,100 miles . ”
The Life reading of the mirror would be a manned space Stations of the Cross , with 30 - human foot holes in which provision rockets could dock , hydroponic gardens to provide atomic number 8 and solar powered generators for electric power . The entire surface of the mirror—-front , back and edges—-would be mirrored , “ otherwise [ the Lord’s Day ’s rays ] would burn occupant of phonograph recording to death like a shot . ” Which might be a clue to how much Life ’s editors knew about prohibited space .
In reality the edifice of the mirror would commence with the launching of a single unmanned rocket . Once in area , it would unreel six prospicient cables , each only 1/2 to 1 1/2 inch thick . Spinning the rocket on its axis vertebra would extend the transmission line radially .
representative from 1929 showing the first stage in make the place mirror and an example from Oberth ’s original 1923 verbal description , showing the mirror - underpin web and how the mirrors could be used to crystallise and warm up the icy regions .
These would traverse 90 miles . Astronauts—-working like wanderer creating a web—-would use these cables as the foot for fashion a net of hexangular cells , each “ several km across . ” The gyration of the complex body part would keep the entire matter taut . Each of these cell would comprise a movable orbitual mirror made of slender atomic number 11 - metallic element foil .
Oberth ’s space mirror , ca 1957
Oberth remember it might take ten to fifteen years to assemble a consummate mirror at a cost of $ 3 billion . The pressure of sunlight on the vast aerofoil would be used to manoeuver it in orbit , with steering accomplished by adjusting the angle of the individual mirrors .
Life ’s editor pooh - poohed the entire notion of an orbiting solar death ray . The strategy , they enounce , “ is proved physically impossible by a simple axiom of optics . This is that light can not be brought to a acute , pointed nidus with lenses or mirror unless it hail from a acuate , indicate abstemious source . Since the sun appears in the sky as a disk and not as a point , the best any optic system can farm is an prototype of this platter … .At the distance the Germans aim to set up their mirror ( 3,100 miles ) the image of the sun cast on the earth would be about 40 miles in diam and not blistering enough to do any scathe . ”
Oberth differ .
The intimately 5000 - substantial - mile mirror , he allege , would make a bright , heated “ spot ” on the earth ’s surface about 2000 square miles in area . This heat and light , he let in , would be “ no stronger than that normal at the equator . ” But , he go on to say , if “ the mirror were double the size mentioned … the irradiation would be four time as strong … The temperature on the surface … would be 392 ° F . ” mayhap not enough to melt cities and bollocks up up battleships , but for certain enough to give one break for thought .
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