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5 months agoAnd I’d guess what they’re asking is how a vacuum would cool something if there’s no matter providing collisions where energy transfer can happen. I.e., isn’t vacuum the ultimate insulator? If I understand correctly, objects in a vacuum cool by radiating only (i.e., energy leaving as photons), and perhaps we only think of space as cold because the absence of a medium (i.e., atmosphere) means no pressure and no additional energy being provided in said medium.
More efficient, sure, but their argument was about freedom, which is just a different dimension. In an extreme example, private jets provide more freedom than public transportation does, even though it’s obvious which one is worse for the environment, more expensive, more intrusive, etc.