Space mirrors could ruin astronomy — and your eyes
Solar energy, at any time of day or night — that’s the dream of space mirror projects. Futurists have been imagining satellite mirrors that could reflect the sun’s light onto the Earth’s surface for over a century. Russian scientists experimented with the concept in the ’90s with the Znamya project. The idea is to put a large mirror in orbit and angle it such that sunlight can be reflected onto a specific geographical area for illumination or the generation of solar power.
Now, the California-based company Reflect Orbital wants to try this idea again, launching a test satellite named Eärendil-1 as a precursor to a fleet of up to 50,000 space mirrors that would provide sunlight on demand as a service. The 18-square-meter mirror satellite has recently been approved for launch by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and will create what the company has said will be a 5-kilometer-wide beam...
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