Chinese city plans to launch artificial moons to replace lampposts



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Chinese city plans to launch artificial moons to replace lampposts

The moonlight is of course the sunlight reflected back to the Earth

A city in China plans to launch its own "artificial moon" by 2020 to replace streetlights and reduce electricity costs in urban areas, according to reports from the country. However, these plans have already been criticized as unrealistic by observers.

National paper China Daily said that Chengdu City in Sichuan Province (southwest) was developing what she describes as "lighting satellites" that will reflect sunlight up to the Earth, as the true moon, but will be eight times brighter.

Wu Chunfeng, head of the new science company Tian Fu region, the organization responsible for the project, announced that the first of these artificial moons would be launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan. by 2020, and three more would follow in 2022 if the first test went well.

Although the first launch is experimental, the 2022 satellites "will be the real deal with great civic and commercial potential," he added.

It is said that the artificial moons will illuminate an area of ​​50 square kilometers and will work by reflecting sunlight to replace the need for street lamps in urban areas. According to state officials, this would save up to $ 170 million a year in electricity costs for Chengdu.

The alien light source could also contribute to rescue efforts in the quake-hit areas during power outages, Wu Chunfeng added.

The project of economic lighting satellites has been developed by many universities and institutes in addition to the company's new Tian Fu Science Zone, such as the Harbin Institute of Technology and the China company Aerospace Science and Industry.

However, outside observers have suggested that the plans do not add up.

Eric Bretschneider, engineer, writes on LinkedIn that "the plan is not going anywhere fast".

Bretschneider said the plan would not provide the level of lighting needed to replace conventional street lights, and added that even getting closer would require 100-meter satellites.

In addition, the satellites will be expensive and difficult to bademble in orbit and will probably not last more than ten years, he added.

In total, concluded Bretschneider, the system would cost about $ 100 billion to start, saving $ 172 million a year in conventional lighting costs.

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