Imagine a malicious person constantly aiming the light at at the house of someone they don’t like. Good thing it doesn’t seem to be feasible any time soon.
Because the sun is not a point source but a disk half a degree across, you can’t focus the sun tighter than about a 1km spot from a mirror in low earth orbit.
Imagine a malicious person constantly aiming the light at at the house of someone they don’t like. Good thing it doesn’t seem to be feasible any time soon.
“I want a spot, but I want all of my sunlight focused onto a spot about a centimeter across. I’ll give you the coordinates.”
Because the sun is not a point source but a disk half a degree across, you can’t focus the sun tighter than about a 1km spot from a mirror in low earth orbit.
Okay but can we make that 1 km hot enough to burn everything inside of it?
For science of course.