By 2030, a California startup called Reflect Orbital wants to fill the night sky with 4,000 orbiting mirrors that bounce sunlight back to Earth.
The plan is to use what essentially amounts to space-based disco balls to keep solar farms glowing after dark. The company swears it’s the next step in renewable energy. Astronomers and ecologists disagree.
The project’s first test run, a satellite named EARENDIL-1, is slated for launch in 2026. It’ll unfold a 3,600-square-foot mirror in orbit to reflect sunlight toward targeted solar farms. Reflect Orbital promises “continuous, reliable access to energy, day or night, to increase power generation.”
Astronomers warn that an army of orbiting mirrors would effectively make it “full Moon bright” every night, drowning out faint celestial objects. That’s catastrophic for observatories and not great for wildlife either. Countless species depend on natural darkness to migrate, feed, and reproduce.
Reflect Orbital’s FCC application is still pending. If approved, it could mark the dawn of a new era of perpetual daylight that will disrupt earthly nightlife as never before.
How do you community members feel about this? The article links to more details on The Conversation
I find this would only create more issues than fix them.
I read a pretty compelling analysis that this is very, very, bad.
The negative consequences include making it unsafe to look through a telescope at the sky, utterly confusing billions of animals that have evolved for a specific nighttime light cycle, while increasing the likelihood of a Kessler cataclysm that renders orbit unusable for decades.
The positive benefits are nothing: the amount of power this light would provide is entirely negligible to a solar farm.
I think you summed it up pretty well and that all sounds very accurate. There are enough green energy solutions out there that we shouldn’t have to sacrifice all the things you mentioned. I’m not reading much in the ways it would be beneficial or necessary.
Classuc tech bro solution to a tech bro problem. Why come up with unsexy yet practical solutions like putting solar panels on rooftops or above parking lots. Let’s run the night sky instead for negible results.
Enshittification of the night
Wait until people start aiming lasers at these mirrors.
Yeah this really seems like a multitude of disasters waiting to happen
