It's a first. Someone wants to do a wide-impact study in space and I may have just hit the first time I've ever wanted to say, "I don't think that's a good idea." Maybe one test flight, one experiment, but I'm not ready to say "sounds great! Go for it!" Neither am I ready to go sign up to protest their launches.
The story appeared in several places today such as SpaceWeather.com that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had recently granted approval to a startup company to orbit a test mirror that's intended to reflect sunlight to parts of the world that going through their night.
Last week, the FCC authorized Reflect Orbital Inc. to launch a huge space mirror named “Eärendil-1.” From an orbit about 625 km high, it will cast a moving, 5-km-wide patch of light onto the Earth about as bright as a full Moon. Later, the company could combine beams from multiple satellites to create much brighter spotlights. Reflect Orbital wants to launch 50,000 more by 2035, selling sunlight-on-demand to solar farms, construction sites and search-and-rescue teams.
In case you missed it, astronomers - both hobbyists and professionals - have been complaining about not being able to take time exposures without catching reflections from satellites pretty much since SpaceX started launching Starlinks. Those complaints have been blamed on them, but Starlink satellites aren't the same size as that 50,000 mirror constellation that Reflect Orbital is talking about doing (Orbital Radar says there aren't even 10,000 Starlink satellites in use today - there are 9,532) - and neither are the Starlink satellites as big as those mirrors that Reflect Orbital is proposing.
An artist's concept of sunlight beamed down from orbit. Bats, fireflies, and other creatures of the night could find their darkness interrupted by roving spots of artificial sunlight. Image credit: SpaceWeather.com
If Reflect Orbital's plan is realized, it could be calamitous not only for astronomy but also for the natural world as a whole. Nocturnal animals and night-blooming plants, tuned by evolution to the rhythm of day and night, would suddenly find their darkness interrupted by moving pools of redirected sunlight. Small favors? Reflect Orbital says the light will not be bright enough to start fires.
The FCC acknowledged that there are concerns about this but replied with a limp, "... optical astronomy and the environment lie largely outside their jurisdiction. They can only regulate the project's use of radio signals." Apparently, no US agency regulates how bright a satellite may shine. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is known for ruling with intelligence and accuracy about as often as "pigs will fly and the Earth will fry" to borrow a line (Snookeroo), so I'd hate to get them involved.
One of the odd aspects to this is the fact that they're reflecting sunlight down. I'd be less concerned about lasers because they're monochromatic, and I'd be rather surprised if as many "nocturnal animals and night-blooming plants" reacted to a monochromatic laser as would react to reflected sunlight.
What a horrid idea. Let's take the one thing that actually causes global warming, that is, solar emissions, and make more hit the earth and all the atmosphere between.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant. Not. Horrid idea. Bad horrid idea. If we were in an ice age, yeah, maybe, but...
Better would be using mirrors to concentrate sunlight for space mining, like in John Ringo's "Live Free or Die" series.
Maybe this comes from being a Floridian, but I don't think of the sun as a friend. I mean, it can kill you as surely as our gators, pythons, rattlers, and so on can, only without the movie land special effects. Sure, there are times when it's welcome, maybe a day or two every year. But it's best to be cautious around it.
Delete>the light will not be bright enough to start fires
ReplyDeleteAs Bart Simpson once said, 'What an odd thing to say."
I'm sure local .govs will regulate if/when light can shine into their territory because of local environments and sensibilities, so I doubt that will be an issue.
Astronomer hobbyists will have to adapt to living in a technological society to practice their technological hobby. My guess is that professional astronomers can use software to compensate?
My vote is to go all-in on the space-faring sciences, and pass out hankies as needed.
For hobby astronomers, it's easy to live with Starlink. It's only visible around sunrise/sunset, so do your photography in the hours when they're not visible. If you're just looking, the satellite goes through the field of view in a blink. For professional observatories, I honestly don't think it's an issue that can't be planned around. On a telescope built around a mirror the size of a baseball field, I think they can live with closing and re-opening the shutter. More like commanding the CCD to turn off for second.
DeleteStarting to look like the scene from "Wall-E" where the Earth is surrounded with a clag of space debris. Good (or bad) ideas gone wrong.
ReplyDeleteNot bright enough to start fires-YET.
ReplyDeleteUh, no. Just.... NO!!
ReplyDeleteAny light moving through the atmosphere will be attenuated. How tight a focus would any mirror project? More probably the mirrors would illuminate miles around their central point. How many would be needed to reach twilight level? How about moon light level? Could it replace street lights for a city? Its not time to panic yet. If they could propose a tight focus so as to start fires (?), use as a war weapon - then worry.
ReplyDeleteThis is pretty much what I meant by my reference to a test flight.
DeleteReflect Orbital's website ( https://www.reflectorbital.com/ ) shows them working on (what I assume) is a prototype, and the reflector is just like a sheet of plastic. It's a planar sheet, and doesn't have a curve so no focal point. That said, I'd really feel better if the test flight proves it doesn't do "bad things" and I'd feel better if they saw that it didn't affect the wildlife or mildlife.
As a farmer I always thought how wonderful it would be to have something like this in the spring and fall to prevent frost damage to crops.
ReplyDeleteI could also possibly see this for lighting up a city rather than using street lights but I most certainly do not see this as a plan for running solar panels at night.
No thank you.
Now that's a perspective I'm probably incapable of having. Since I was a three year old, I've lived in Florida and frost was a rare treat to enjoy.
DeleteThat said, I wonder if it would be possible to gather and steer enough sunlight to do that. The reflectors I've seen aren't big, as in acres, they're big compared to a few square feet of a TV dish antenna. It could light up a completely dark place, but to warm it up even a degree doesn't seem likely.
And I may completely not understand the physics there.
Hmmmmmmm...
ReplyDeleteSolar sails in orbit.
How much thrust to KEEP them pointed AND in orbit?? Can they be refueled? How expensive is Zenon?