This country wants to launch an artificial moon to replace streetlights | Simplemost

In just a few years, astronomers may have a new object to follow in the night sky, provided they observe Chengdu, a city in southwestern China.

According to new information published by China Daily, Chinese scientists hope to launch a new satellite by 2020, which will act as an artificial moon for the city, reflecting the light of a reflective coating to illuminate the streets located below. The artificial moon – if the plans go as planned – would gravitate about thirty kilometers above the Earth, at a distance very far from the 238,855 miles of the moon.

However, it would also be about eight times brighter than the moon, helping to brighten the streets of Chengdu, and could save the city up to $ 173 million in electricity costs a year.

"Think of this as a kind of investment," BBC spokesperson Matteo Ceriotti, a lecturer in space systems engineering at the University of Glasgow, told BBC. "Nighttime electricity is very expensive, so if you could, for example, benefit from free lighting for up to 15 years, the result would be better economically in the long run.

Wu Chunfeng, chairman of the Science Society of the Tian Fu New Area in Chengdu, told China Daily that the launch of the artificial moon of 2020 was only the first of several other planned artificial moons. Three others are already under construction.

"The first moon will be mostly experimental, but the three moons of 2022 will be the real deal with great civic and commercial potential," Chunfeng told China Daily. He explained that the tests were already underway. "We will only test in an uninhabited desert," said Chunfeng, "so that our light beams do not interfere with anybody or equipment based on Earth-based space observation. When the satellite goes into service, people will only see a bright star above, not a giant moon as we imagine. "

The tests will indeed be important as Chinese scientists advance in the realization of this plan, because there are valid concerns about how light pollution can affect everything from human sleep to migration patterns. animals. According to Quartz, even the natural growth of plants has been disrupted.

Whether the artificial moon passes through the tests or not, this is an interesting idea – that amateur and professional astronomers will follow closely as it approaches its launch.