[LMB] (chat) new essay

[ANDREW BARTON]

"Mark A. Mandel" <thnidu at yahoo.com>

  > If we're getting into the soletta, _that_ project is itself impossible.
 The mirrors can't reflect more energy than they receive from Komarr's
 sun. If the soletta reflects all its energy onto a planetary
 "footprint" with the same area as the mirrors*, that footprint _and nowhere else_
 will get full one-sun insolation from the soletta in addition to
 whatever it gets directly from the sun. If the reflection is spread out to
 cover the whole visible (almost-)hemisphere, or indeed any significant
 fraction of the planet's surface, it will fade to insignificance. <
   
  Is there any statement of how big the soletta is?  Maybe it really does have a surface area comparable to the size of the planet.
   
  Andrew