Suppose you acquire the power to cancel the night in a specific place in the world. What would you use it for?
It’s not a new idea. During World War II, Nazi scientists fantasized about launching mirrors into space. in order to “fry” enemy cities. Fortunately, they didn’t have the technology to do it.
In the 1990s, Russia really tried with the Znamya projectwhose sole intention was to illuminate the dark cities of Siberia during the long winter. However, the experiment was short-lived: the first prototype disintegrated in the atmosphere and the second was never deployed.
A new attempt. In the era of photovoltaic solar energy, the Californian company Reflect Orbital plans deploy a constellation of gigantic mirrors in orbit with a new purpose: to reflect sunlight towards large photovoltaic plants on Earth during twilight hours. In other words, offer “sun on demand” as a service to increase the production of renewable energy.
The company, which has already raised $20 million, carried out successful tests with hot air balloons, and is ready to make the leap into space. Its director, Ben Nowack, sums it up like this: “We want to make it as easy as possible: you go to a website, tell us your GPS coordinates and we send you some sunlight after dark.” They have already applied to the FCC for a license to launch their first demonstration satellite in 2026, with an 18 x 18 meter mirror. In the long term, they propose deploying a fleet of 4,000 satellites with reflectors of up to 55 x 55 meters.
“Catastrophic” for science. As energy companies know, solar panels stop producing electricity just when demand picks up. Reflecting sunlight from the sky can solve this intermittency, a seemingly laudable idea that doesn’t appeal to everyone.
Astronomers, already fighting a tough battle against light pollution, have reacted vehemently. “The whole point of this project is to illuminate the sky and extend daylight, and obviously from an astronomical perspective, that’s pretty catastrophic,” explains Robert Masseyfrom the Royal Astronomical Society of the United Kingdom.
Worse than Starlink? Unlike constellations like SpaceX’s Starlink, where satellite glow is an unwanted effect that the company tries to mitigate, in the case of Reflect Orbital, light pollution is the main product. The beams of light would be four times brighter than the full moon, and would not only affect the illuminated area, because atmospheric dispersion would extend the impact to hundreds of kilometers around, according to the astronomers themselves.
This would not only ruin astronomical observations, but could have devastating effects on wildlife, disrupting the circadian rhythms of countless species, experts say.
Too late? The Reflect Orbital project comes at the worst possible time for astronomy. The night skies have been under siege for some time. Artificial objects in orbit have already increased the brightness of the night sky by more than 10% above natural levels, exceeding the threshold at which a place is considered “light polluted”.
Satellite megaconstellations led astronomers to come together and create a common front to save the dark skies. The fear is that, if projects like Reflect Orbital succeed, there will soon be no dark corners on our planet from which to observe the universe. Hence many of the most ambitious and powerful telescopes are being deployed in space.
Images | Reflect Orbital
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