What do you think of my idea for global cooling?

Question

Build giant nuclear powered air conditioners. Put them on rockets and get them into a low earth orbit. Use the cold temps of space to cool the air.

We would launch some number of them say 30 or 40, place them at various points around the globe to cool the atmosphere.

It would work!

Tinker - Why does asking a silly question for the fun of it disturb you so? Why does it trouble you that most questions I ask on Answers are silly? And many of my answers are also silly (but not all). Does this trouble you?

Are people with a higher IQ than others not allowed to have some mindless fun? Lighten up. Enjoy life while it lasts.

Moose - very good answer - you get runner up.

16.4 million reactors - ROLF!

Answer 1

LOL. Wouldn't a giant nuclear powered
beach umbrella to provide shade be more efficient??

Answer 2

No, it would not work. The idea that 'space is cold' is actually rather flawed; in fact, spacecraft have more problems with being too hot than they do with being too cold, even while in space.

If you wanted to cool the Earth by radiating excess infrared energy into space, putting nuclear reactors in orbit is not the way to do it. A much more workable idea would be to build space elevators (giant cables that reach from the ground all the way up to geosynchronous orbit) and carry warm water from the ocean up on the elevator to cool off before bringing it (or dropping it) back down. However, even this system would be highly inefficient, and it seems that just about any ideas for cooling the Earth by radiating infrared is going to be pretty unfeasible in economic terms. Much better methods still include introducing genetically engineered reflective algae into the ocean, or putting giant shades in space to cast shadows onto the Earth's surface (the same shades could also be used to generate electricity, killing two birds with one stone).

Answer 3

Even if it did work, what country would be interested in the costs of the project. There is too much conspiracy about nuclear power to build plants, let alone launch them into space and it would probably have catastrophic effects on the environment.

Answer 4

Cool what air?

Space has no air, so how would the A/C units cool the atmosphere? In order to stay in orbit, the orbiting units cannot touch the atmosphere (friction causes the orbiting bodies to lose speed and fall to Earth).

Answer 5

Quoted from another of your questions;
"I have a 154 IQ and my brain is firing on all cylinders."
The current question leads me to question that statement.
However, since this question is just a troll, like most (if not all) your others, its total absurdity doesn't prove you are not the sharpest tool in the shed, but still, the mere posting of trolls suggests your estimate of your IQ may be high by an order of magnitude or so.

Answer 6

Total mean mass of atmosphere: 5.148x10^18kg
Specific heat of air: 1003.5J/(kg*K)
Energy transfer required to cool the atmosphere by 1 degree C at 100% efficiency ratio: 5.166x10^21J
Average annual output of a nuclear reactor: 3.15x10^12J
===========
Number of reactors required to cool the atmosphere by 1 degree over the course of one hundred years:
16.4 million

Follow-up: High-performance energy-star air conditioning efficiency rate: 0.08%

Answer 7

Very creative idea, but nuclear powered? Fusion or fisson? Also the costs would be very much out there. Not only that but the entire world isn't exactly working together.

Answer 8

Hey why not? I'm worried about global warming myself, even before Al Gore's An Inconvinient Truth. All great ideas have to start somewhere right?

Answer 9

Would be great when they came out of orbit and fell back to earth. Wouldn't have to worry about global anything then.

Answer 10

Earth is still going to have to heat up a few degrees to even get back to the temperature that it was 50 years ago..

Global warming in most points is a scam. Yes the earth is getting warming but it's a normal cycle.