California-based startup Reflect Orbital aims to build a swarm of 4,000 giant mirrors in low Earth orbit to “sell sunlight” to customers at night. Experts warn that the mirrors could mess with telescopes, blind stargazers and impact the environment.
Reflect Orbital, which was founded in 2021, has recently taken the first step in a scheme to sell sunlight at night by bouncing solar rays off giant “reflectors” that can redirect the vital resource almost anywhere on our planet. By doing this, the company aims to extend daylight hours in specific locations, thus allowing paying customers to generate solar power, grow crops and replace urban lighting.
But experts say it is a wildly impractical plan that should never get off the ground. What’s more, the resulting light pollution could devastate ground-based astronomy, distract aircraft pilots and even blind stargazers.
Let’s be honest: This is military technology camouflaging itself as civilian tech. It totally doesn’t make any sense for the proposed uses, but it totally is worthwhile for military purposes. Jihadist sneaking up onto your base in Bagdadh in the night? Light up the sky! Russian drone attack when it’s dark? Light up the sky! That border to north korea? Eternal sunshine! Your B2 and B52 bombers are on the way? Confuse your enemy by switching the sun on and off! Protect your convois by always have them drive in the night!
This is literally, actually a bond villain plot
Moonraker.
Moonraker was eugenics and nerve gas. Die Another Day was big space mirror.
this is one of the worst ideas that has ever come from capitalism dawg what the fuck who even thinks of this what rich fuck is gonna be paying to make it daytime at night…
its not just impractical, it is just entirely pointless and we already have way too much space pollution because of fuckin starlink
Was it not so bad when the (ex) soviets did it?
This is past soviet collapse and a literal monetary venture the whole point was to use it to sell access to it for the few rich places that could possibly want that, thats capitalist theres literally no use for it except for use in trying to increase wealth for a smaller group that has access to the technology and can suddenly control natural resources without even colonizing or genociding a place to get it they can starve countries or have a permanent advantage at the cost of the rest of society
What about making our own startup that will make sure to destroy those orbital glasses?
Surface to space missiles seem to be a profitable entreprise
Just launch a ton of ball bearings into orbit, and end space flight for ever. Or at least for the forseeable future.
Edit: Bearing balls, actually. Ball bearings is where the bearing balls are. But we want them in orbit.
It would be easier to have a satellite in orbit that fires a shotgun at them.
You would need some fancy orbital calculations and precise aiming to make sure the shotgun pellets actually intercept the mirrors, and it would take some engineering to make a shotgun that fires the pellets in a narrow enough cone at high enough velocity to be able to get on an intercept course with most satellites, but you could probably fit it on a Starlink-sized payload. The main issue would be bribing a launch provider to send it up there, but once it’s there you could direct it from the ground without it being traceable to you, and you could have it thrust randomly to dodge anti-satellite weaponry until it runs out of shells.
At some point this would create enough space debris that it could trigger Kessler syndrome, with the debris from destroyed satellites hitting other satellites faster than it de-orbits, until all satellites in low earth orbit are reduced to powder that falls down to earth over a couple of years.
Apart from bribing a launch provider to get the satellite up there, you could probably do either of these for under $10 million, most of it R&D. Much cheaper than developing your own surface-to-space missiles.
Maggie Simpson will sort them out.
Why put mirrors in space when you can SELL SHARES in building mirrors in space to redirect sunlight.
Worth trillions, don’t you think? Not the end product - just the design and endless alpha model.
Shit… you think the F-35 was a complete boondoggle(*1), you ain’t seen shit. Space is BIG. Price tags $,$,$,$,$
(*1) and it remains so to this very day
Capitalism will steal the very foundations of life and sell it to you to make a buck. They will siphon the life force from the earth in order to benefit themselves. I honestly try and look at things dispassionately and put it all in perspective but DAM it’s hard not to be emotional when you see what these fucking stinking pigs are up to on their mountain.
So many companies and environmental damage just to get investors to dump money into terrible ideas.
Reminds me of this other terrible dystopian idea I saw the other day: https://nz.news.yahoo.com/elon-musk-announces-plan-control-182840080.html
Glad billionaires think they can steal the sun and sell it back to us now.
Less Sun = Less Plants = Less Carbon Sink = 🤦
This is obviously a scam directed at venture capitalists. There’s no way this is going to happen.
Okay, but can we execute these people for putting this concept into the world anyway?
Suncoin for sale.
Don’t worry, this type of Space Nuttery is merely a way to extract money from even dumber billionaires.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaren
None of the Space Nuttery fantasies will ever happen.
The future we hoped for: Dyson sphere, free unlimited energy
The future silicon valley shitlords are hoping for: let us sell you sunlight (or maybe lack thereof, wink wink)
Ah ha, exactly
Thought I was in the boring dystopia community instead. I suppose I’ll just continue to hope that this is too impractical to happen or that those responsible aren’t competent enough to make it happen.
Isn’t this basically the plot of “who shot Mr Burns?”
It’s the opposite of that plot. In that episode, Mr Burns blocks out the sun in order to force everyone to use more electricity to increase revenue for his nuclear power plant.
If the mirrors are reflecting light into a dark part of earth, they are taking it away from a place that’s experiencing daylight.
How? I would think the reflector would have to be near tangential to the area it lit up
Oh shit you’re right. I’m more lucid that I was when I wrote that and see how dumb it sounds.
Do they think the sun only shines on earth?
Don’t worry, they will only block light from poorer countries with a mostly non white population. very safe and nothing to worry about!
Wow yes. Had forgotten about this. They gave alternates of who killed him. I don’t remember them all but for some reason I rember Apu and Maggie firing with angry faces. I need to watch that again.
This exact same technology naturally allows capitalists to force everyone to pay not to have their sunlight blocked during the day.
I mean, the technology certainly has benefits, not in reflecting sunlight onto the dark side of the Earth. Nobody fucking needs that. Instead it should be used to shade a few percent of sunlight in order to control Earth’s warming climate.
But rich people gotta fuck things up. No single entity must ever be allowed to control orbital megastructures.
Rather then launching millions of tons of satellites, maybe the government could try regulating emissions? You know, remove cars, fossil fuel usage, create passenger rail etc? Improve society instead of doing literally the opposite?
Oh absolutely. Regulating emissions and mass carbon capture by replanting forests, then burying them is the only way. Ain’t like it would be even so easy as launching millions of shade satellites. An entire automated zero g manufacturing industry would have to be launched. And while that tickles my scifi nerd fancy, again, we can never allow a scant few humans to gatekeep space resources for themselves. That’s too much wealth and power.
