🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <30262@castle.ed.ac.uk>, ntc@castle.ed.ac.uk (N T Clifford) writes:
> 
> A report carried in `The Guardian' (Thursday  January 14) detailed an
> upcoming Russian space event.
> 
> Apparently a recent Progress cargo ship (1992-71A?) currently docked
> (or station keeping) with Mir is due (maybe next month) to unfurl a 65
> foot  'space mirror' constructed from aluminium coated plastic film, in
> an experiment known as `Znamya' (Banner).
> 
> Apparently this is an attempt to extend the daylight hours of the
> Siberian regions by reflecting sunlight to the required areas.

I hope everybody here recognized the obsurdity of thinking that a 20
meter mirror could "extend the daylight hours of the Siberian regions."
'The Guardian' clearly doesn't.  (Typical newspaper science writing.)
The most the mirror would do is make a bright spot in the sky.

But, as my .sig notes, journalists don't have a monopoly on stupidity.

-- Ken Jenks, NASA/JSC/GM2, Space Shuttle Program Office
      kjenks@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov  (713) 483-4368

     "Even considering the improvements possible... the gas
      turbine [jet] could hardly be considered a feasible application
      to airplanes because of the difficulty of complying with the
      stringent weight requirements."
	-- US National Academy of Sciences, 1940

     "It may not be possible to build a vehicle with single-stage-
      to-orbit capability in the mid 1990s."
        -- US National Academy of Sciences, 1990