149,597,971
Where are you getting this number from? The number you need to be using is the distance from the earth to the ISS, 408,000 meters.
Second, your formulation of the inverse square law is incorrect, in that you are missing the 4pi component, but in the grand scheme of distances we’re looking at, its negligible. It also looks like you may have gotten the order of operations wrong.
Third
149,597,971 km^2 * 149,597,871 km^2
The hell even is it that you think you are representing by these numbers? What is it you think you are saying?
fourth
You can believe or not; I’ve explained it as clearly as I know how.
The distance you need to account for is Sun to earth plus back to the satellite. Which I think is what they were using.
Yeah but what they are not accounting for is that the light actually has to come off the mirror. You can demonstrate this with a hand mirror that the illumination spot gets larger quickly at a distance. Take a mirror and find the sun. Send a reflection to the wall nearest you. Then send the reflection to a wall further away. The reflection on the wall further away is larger and therefore, the energy more spread out. The light coming off the mirror is not perfectly parallel as it had to pass through the atmosphere, then interact with the surface of the mirror. We do use mirrors for calibration in satellite remote sensing, but you will get far far far far more power arriving at something like the ISS coming from a much less powerful laser over such a distance. If we controlled by wattage, a laser will absolute crush a mirror in its ability to transmit energy over a distance.
Send a reflection to the wall nearest you. Then send the reflection to a wall further away. The reflection on the wall further away is larger and therefore, the energy more spread out.
I am very confident that you have not tried this for yourself. I want you to show me pictures of this happening (with sunlight); I think you will find the experience educational.
(Edit: The mirror and the wall must both remain at the same rotational angle – if you angle the mirror to move the spot, and the spot becomes elongated because it’s now coming in at a more acute angle, it doesn’t count. Shining a sunbeam on the edge of a doorframe and then through the door to a faraway wall that’s through the doorway would be a good way to do it.)
Refraction and reflection. Most non specialty (consumer) mirrors have low quality and standards, so are affected by these more than other specialty mirrors.
Where are you getting this number from?
I’m gonna leave the source of that and the other number and where the pi went as an exercise for the reader
So you are like, an actual idiot then. I guess I picked the right meme for you.
Will you bet me money on how signal mirrors work and how bright the flash is at a certain distance from the mirror?
