US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted official permission to the California startup Reflect Orbital for the launch of their first experimental mirror satellite Eärendil-1. Project, which is positioned as a revolution in the field of renewable energy, caused severe criticism and panic among the scientific community.
Company, founded by a former SpaceX engineer, seeks to sell "sunlight on demand".
Technology: A satellite the size of a small refrigerator will deploy in space at an altitude of about 625 km square Mylar mirror with a width of approx 18 meters.
Function: The mirror will catch the sun's rays and redirect them to the night side of the Earth, creating an illuminated spot with a diameter of about 5–6 km.
Target: Continue operation of ground-based solar power plants after sunset, and also illuminate areas of natural disasters, night construction or military operations.
Scale: The launch of the first test device is scheduled for 2026 year using the Falcon rocket 9. If the test is successful, the company plans to deploy a group of 50 000 satellites to 2035 year.
Scientists and defenders of the night sky from the organization DarkSky say, that this concept carries critical threats
The destruction of optical astronomy: The beam from one such mirror will be four times brighter than the full moon. Even the flight of such an object is beyond the field of view of a large telescope (example, observatory Vera C. Rubin) can irreversibly burn the sensitive matrices of digital cameras.
Global light pollution: Not only the target area will suffer due to light scattering in the atmosphere, as well as territories for dozens of kilometers around. This will make exploration of deep space from Earth virtually impossible.
A blow to the biosphere: Artificial "day in the middle of the night" can completely destroy the circadian rhythms of animals, birds and insects, which navigate by the stars or require complete darkness to survive.
A precedent of impunity: The FCC has only issued authorization for the use of radio frequencies, officially declaring, that optical pollution of the sky "lies outside their competence". Scientists are outraged, that one private company from the USA can single-handedly distort the night sky for the entire planet.
Representatives of Reflect Orbital assure, that developed three levels of security:
The light will be clearly focused only within the given spot.
Mirrors can be turned off (turn away from the Earth) instantly at any time.
Satellite trajectories will be programmed as follows, to deliberately bypass nature reserves and scientific observatories.
However, astronomers are skeptical, as announced plans to deploy thousands of new objects will create chaos in orbit, which will be impossible to fully control.
Source: https://lookintothe.space