The GuardianThe Guardian

A solution to the climate crisis: Mining the moon, researchers say

By Oliver Milman

08 Feb 2023 · 3 min read

Some astrophysicists have proposed a geo-engineering solution to tackle global warming. The Guardian reports on the suggestion to shoot moon dust towards the Earth, in order to deflect the sun's rays.

Curated by informed

Proponents of a “moonshot” idea to deal with global heating have been handed a new, very literal, interpretation by researchers who have proposed firing plumes of moon dust from a gun into space in order to deflect the sun’s rays away from Earth.

The seemingly outlandish concept, outlined in a new research paper, would involve creating a “solar shield” in space by mining the moon of millions of tons of its dust and then “ballistically eject[ing]” it to a point in space about 1m miles from Earth, where the floating grains would partially block incoming sunlight.

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