Joe Strout wrote:
Here's an off-the-cuff thought which I lack the expertise to answer in
any detail:

What would it take to focus & reflect sunlight on a lunar colony from a
series of orbiting lunar satellites? I'm imagining something where one
satellite comes over the horizon, focuses light onto our moon base
(which is in the dark of course), then as it goes down, another
satellite comes up and takes over the job. (I'm assuming these
satellites have to be in a fairly low orbit since otherwise you wouldn't
be able to focus the light to sufficiently small spot.)

I'm willing to accept a period of darkness when the satellite over the
horizon passes through the Moon's shadow. I'm just trying to get some
light (and therefore heat and power) to the base for the majority of the
lunar night.

Can anyone fill in some more details for this idea?


I'd vote for an sps satellite parked at the L1 point where they're
hoping to send the James Webb scope. That might be useful for colonists
during the long lunar night.



--
Hop David
http://clowder.net/hop/index.html