Siberia stays in the dark good of winter. In 1988, Russia had an idea to solve it: mirrors in space

Towards the end of World War II, Some documents in Life magazine They revealed one of the many ideas that Hitler’s Nazi Germany had: a kind of solar projectile through A giant orbital mirror to destroy enemies or even whole cities. Obviously that never happened, but decades later it served as a slight inspiration for a Russian scientist who started from a fascinating idea: how could we extend the hours of the day?

Convert the night. The truth is that the background idea is not new. Over the years, Humanity has sought to extend the day (Understood as day and light) with technological tools, from electric light to digital communications. However, in the 1990s, a group of Russian scientists tried to take this concept to the extreme: launch huge space mirrors to reflect sunlight towards the earth and prolong the day.

Vladimir Syromyatnikov. The project we are talking about was directed by Vladimir Syromyatnikovone of the most influential space engineers in historyknown by Develop the ship’s coupling mechanism which is still used at the International Space Station. During the 80s, his interest focused on The design of solar candles that could use solar radiation To propel ships through space.

However, in postsoviet Russia, obtaining financing for space projects required clear economic justification. Thus, Syromyatnikov reformulated his idea and presented it as One way to illuminate Siberia’s arctic regions during the dark winter monthsincreasing productivity in agriculture and industry. Yeah, I would try to turn on the sun for the polar regions of Russia After the night fell.

Znamya and his brief success. In 1988, Syromyatnikov founded the Space Regata Consortiumwith the support of Roscosmos and several state companies. His motto was very clear: “Diury light all night.” The idea not only promised to reduce electric lighting costs, but also Facilitate rescue in disasters, military operations and night construction projects.

The first prototype, Znamya 2, He was sent to space in February 1993 aboard the progress M-15 ship and subsequently deployed from the MIR Space Station. Once in orbit, he began to turn to deploy its reflective surface. The mirror, 20 meters in diameter, achieved the feat of Reflect a beam of light equivalent to that of a full moon, illuminating an area of ​​5 km in diameter while crossing Europe and Russia 8 km per second, even Astronauts in Mir confirmed that they could follow the flash from space.

The problem? The reflected light was more diffuse than expected and difficult to controland the weather was not taken into account. Plus: The cloudiness prevented the majority of observers on land to notice. Hours later, The mirror disintegrated by re -entering the atmosphere.

ZNeamya 2.5. Despite its short duration, the experiment showed that the concept was viable, which promoted Znamya 2.5 planningwith a larger mirror and the ability to maintain the beam of light on a fixed point. Thus, in 1999 this second version was launched with A 25 meter diameter mirror. This time, when deploying, one of his fine sheets became entangled in an antenna from the Progress ship, tear the structure. The attempts to free her failed and the mirror had to be exorbitantburning in the atmosphere.

The next step would be Znamya 3, with a 70 -meter mirror, capable of illuminating entire cities. What happened? That The failure of Znamya 2.5 and the lack of financing buried Syromyatnikov’s project and dream. In addition, the opposition of astronomers and environmentalists grew, arguing that Space mirrors could alter natural cyclesaffect astronomical observation and confuse wildlife.

A man and his tireless search for light. Despite the failure, Syromyatnikov continued looking for financing to build a permanent mirro system. We talk about An estimated project of 340 million dollars. His vision was a world where cities would not need artificial light and the days had no nights.

However, investors lost interest and the project was abandoned. Syromyatnikov continued his work on coupling systems until his death In 2006, dedicating his days to work without rest, in an ironic parallelism with his obsession with eliminate The night.

The legacy. If you want, that was also the end of a space “exploration.” In any case, much less the background idea is over. Today, the idea of ​​taking advantage of sunlight from space has resurfaced In the investigation of orbital solar plantsthe same as They could send energy to Earth through microwave.

However, Znamya is still a reminder of the limits of technology and the need to respect natural cycles. Russia’s attempt to convert the night and enlighten Siberia in winter was both a demonstration of human ingenuity and an experiment that, in the end, crashed with the laws of nature and resistance of the modern world.

Image | QSI/MIR

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