International Planetary Sunshade (IPSS)

The International Planetary Sunshade (IPSS) is a research program led by Tharshan Maheswaran at the Institute of Space Systems (IRS), University of Stuttgart. It investigates large, thin structures placed between the Earth and the Sun, near the Lagrange point L1, that would reduce or redirect a small fraction of sunlight to slow global warming and give more time for climate action on the ground. Part of the sunshade material could come from the Moon and from asteroids. The IPSS project is supported by Airbus Defence and Space, ArianeGroup and the European Space Agency (ESA), within the ESA Initial Support for Innovation.

This work was carried out in close collaboration with the IPSS team at the IRS. It was a supporting contribution to the IPSS project, space architecture and visualisation that translate the engineering concept into images and spaces, and not an independent project of the atelier.