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Moonlight may be romantic, but it's really not helpful. At only 1 / 400,000th of the sun's brightness, the moon is usually not enough to light the night.
Chinese scientists and engineers, however, do not want Chengdu residents to be content with the faint glow of Earth's natural satellite. As they announced recently, they can boost wattage with an artificial moon projected into space.
Last week, Wu Chunfeng, chairman of the Chengdu Research Institute for Microelectronic Systems for Aerospace Science and Technology, announced his intention to launch an "artificial moon" in 2020. He spoke at A national event on innovation and mass entrepreneurship held in Chengdu, China. Wu said the false moon point, technically a lighting satellite, was to replace the Chengdu street lights.
According to Wu, the "lighting satellite" would be eight times brighter like the real moon. But he also insisted that it was designed to "complete the moon at night". On Earth, its presence would appear as a "twilight-like glow" that could light an area about 50 miles in diameter.
The main engine of this project seems to be money. According to Chinese media, the second moon would replace traditional energy sources, resulting in a reduction in energy consumption and a production value of 20 billion yuan five years after its launch.
In response to reporters' concerns that artificial light would disrupt astronomical observations, Kang Weimin, director of the Harbin Institute of Technology's optical institute, said the artificial moonlight would be like a sunny evening and would not be enough to cause damage. to biological systems.
The Guardian said the project would be funded by the city or the Chinese government, but the Chengdu Microelectronics Research Institute for Aerospace Science and Technology is the main contractor for the Chinese space program, which has rapidly evolved since 2015. And the country plans in the coming years to double the number of launches made last year.
Although the artificial moon project sounds like science fiction, something similar has already been attempted. In 1993, Russia launched a lighting mechanism, called a space mirror, in order to increase the duration of the day. He used a large sheet of plastic attached to a spacecraft to reflect sunlight on Earth. For a moment, the camera directed a beam of light toward Russia, but for the inhabitants of the Earth, it looked like a bright star pulse.
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