American startup prepares to sell sunlight at night — Ziare
An ambitious plan to illuminate the Earth’s surface at night using space mirrors is turning from science fiction into a real commercial project.
Ziare reports on this.
The American company Reflect Orbital plans to launch a network of orbital reflectors that will allow customers to order “sunlight” to a specific location using a mobile app.
The concept of reflecting sunlight back to Earth has deep roots and dates back to 1923.
Its author was the renowned scientist from Sibiu, Hermann Oberth—one of the pioneers of modern rocket technology, who described the use of giant mirrors for rescue operations.
The idea has gained new momentum in the modern realities of the space industry.
Reflect Orbital founder Ben Novak claims that the service will be as simple as possible to use: “Soon you’ll be able to order sunlight to your location with a simple click of a button via the app.”
The startup’s technical plan is impressive in its scale—they plan to launch up to 50,000 mirrors with diameters ranging from 20 to 50 meters into orbit.
These structures will form a belt around the planet capable of directing a beam of light to specific points at users’ request.
The cost of such an exotic service will be quite high—about $5,000 per hour of illumination.
In terms of intensity, this beam of light will be comparable to a full moon, which could be useful for the agricultural sector, solar farms, or military purposes.
As a reminder, scientists have pinpointed the cosmic address of planet Earth.
Also, 700 million years ago, Earth resembled an ice ball.
