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In Chengdu, an ambitious plan is under way to replace the city's streetlights: to reinforce the glow of the true moon with that of a more powerful fake.
The southwestern Chinese city plans to launch a lighting satellite in 2020. According to a report from the People's Daily, the artificial moon is "designed to complete the moon at night", even though it would be eight times as much brilliant.
The "twilight glow" of the satellite could illuminate an area with a diameter of 10 to 80 km, while the precise lighting range could be controlled to a few tens of meters, which would allow it to replace streetlights.
The vision was shared by Wu Chunfeng, chairman of the private entrepreneur in the field of science and aerospace technology Chengdu, the Center for Research in Microelectronic Systems Co (Casc), at an event national event dedicated to innovation and mass entrepreneurship held in Chengdu.
Wu was quoted as saying that the tests had started several years ago and that the technology had evolved enough to allow its launch in 2020. It is unclear whether the plan has the support of Chengdu City or the Chinese government. , although Casc is the main contractor for the Chinese space program.
The newspaper People's Daily attributed this idea to "a French artist who imagined hanging over the Earth a necklace made of mirrors that could reflect the sun in the streets of Paris all year."
The probability that the false moon rises in Chengdu remains to be seen. But there are precedents for this waking dream on the moon rooted in science, although technology and ambitions differ.
In 2013, three large computer-controlled mirrors were installed over the Norwegian city of Rjukan to follow the movement of the sun and reflect its rays on the city square. "Rjukan – or at least, a small but vital part of Rjukan – is no longer stuck where the sun does not shine," the Guardian reported at the time.
Longer ago, in the 1990s, a team of Russian astronomers and engineers had managed to launch a satellite in space in order to send back sunlight back to Earth, lighting up briefly the nocturnal hemisphere.
The Znamya experiment was aimed at "testing the feasibility of illuminating Earth points with light equivalent to several full moons," the New York Times reported. "Several" proved to be exaggerated, but the design proved solid.
A more ambitious attempt, Znamya 2.5, was made in 1999, raising preoccupation with nighttime disturbance by nocturnal animals and astronomical observations. A spokesman for the Bonn Ministry of Technology was less worried and told The Guardian, "It's a bit early for jokes about April Fool's joke, but it looks like it."
But Znamya 2.5 missed its launch and its creators failed to raise funds for a new attempt.
The People's Daily quickly reassured people concerned about the impact of the false moon on nocturnal wildlife.
Kang Weimin, director of the Institute of Optics, Harbin Institute of Technology, explained that the light from the satellite looked like a twilight-like glow, so it should not affect animal routines.
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