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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 29th, 2023

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  • If I had to build such a system, instead of a few satellites with really big mirrors I’d instead have a massive number of small satellites with smaller mirrors. Obviously then any area I’d want to light up, I’d have to hit with a number of the satellites - probably dozens at least or even hundreds of them for decent sized area. That would at least alleviate a few of the problems - aiming would be easier. As satellites move out of range new satellites would be moving in range. Long shadows from the angle of satellite near the edge of their range wouldn’t be as much of a problem as I’d be hitting any spot from a variety of angles. That the satellites would be useless for about 75% of their orbit I could make up for by launching even more satellites.

    Of course, it would still be hugely impractical and there would still be major limitations. I’m still not sure how you could manage the aiming - the satellites would have to be continuously adjusting their aim to track their target. Reaction wheels can only do so much and using thrusters you’d burn through propellant like crazy. Launching the required array of satellites would be outrageously expensive and you’d need thousands of them. Eventually something would go wrong - you’d have a collision or one would break up and you’d Kessler yourself right out of business.








  • The one smart feature I could see useful on a fridge would be for it to send me some sort of notification if the door is left open. Perhaps it could also send a notification if the temperature inside gets too warm (or too cold) - which assuming the door is shut would probably mean the fridge is broken.

    With that said, I’m perfectly happy with a dumb box that gets cold inside and has a simple electro-mechanical switch to turn the light on when the door is opened.