/sci/ - Science & Math

>>12102400
Let's start with a base 320km x 320km square.
That's 102,400 square kilometers.
If we split it up into a 5 x 5 grid of panels we're left with only 53,284 square kilometers left to cover (25 64km x 64km squares with one in the center plus three for each arm).
That's 5.3 odd billion square centimeters.
The density of aluminum is 2.7 grams per cubic centimeter.
We can cut the aluminum down to 1/10 millimeter thickness.
That leaves 0.027 grams per square centimeter.
That leaves us with a little under 144 thousand kilograms of aluminum that needs to get into orbit.
That's not even two full Starships worth of payload capacity.
Even including the necessary mechanisms to unfurl such a colossal amount of material, it certainly wouldn't need even five Starships. Or even 13 if you want one for each panel section.