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A Chinese company will light a large city with a large mirror deployed in orbit. A technique already tested, without much success, by the Russians.
China wants to launch into space by 2020 an "artificial moon", which would reflect on Earth the sunlight during the night and would achieve savings in lighting, announced Friday the China Daily.
This satellite equipped with a large folding mirror would be responsible for illuminating the large city of Chengdu and should be eight times brighter than the lunar body, reports the state newspaper.
A first copy should first be sent to space, followed by the success of three others in 2022, Wu Shunfeng, head of the Tian Fu New Area Science Society, told Xinhua. "The first Moon will be mainly experimental, but the three sent in 2022 will be the real finished product. They will have great potential in terms of services to the people and from a commercial point of view, "Wu said.
Replace lampposts
By sending sunlight back to Earth, the satellite, which would evolve at an altitude of 500 km, is supposed to be able to partially replace streetlights. It could save the equivalent of 150 million euros of electricity per year to the city of Chengdu if it can illuminate an area of 50 km2.
The artificial light source could also be used after natural disasters, by deflecting solar rays to terrestrial areas where power was cut off, Wu Chunfeng said.
Beijing has for many years been conducting an ambitious space program to catch up with the United States and Russia. The country plans to send a small robot named Chang'e-4 on the far side of the moon by the end of 2018.
View of the folding mirror Znamya 2 in 1993. Roscosmos
Precedents tested by the Russians
China is not the first country to try to reflect the sun's rays on the Earth. In the 1990s, Russian scientists had developed a similar project called Znamya ("Banner"). But the fall of the Soviet Union complicated the financing of the project. The first mirror, 20 m in diameter, deployed from the Mir station had worked briefly, but the second test in 1999 had failed. The thin reflective film of the 25m folding mirror was torn by touching an antenna. A handling error that had unfortunately killed the rest of the program, and the project of an even bigger mirror.
At the time, the Russian project had angered some astronomers, who feared they could no longer observe the sky and the stars. Environmentalists also fear disturbances to nocturnal wildlife, already very sensitive to urban lighting.
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