WITHShould sunlight be supplied on demand, regardless of the time of day?
One company is up to this god-like act. Reflect orbital recently applied to receive a federal license to test the concept in April 2026. During this test, an orbiting satellite will deploy a 60-by-60-foot mirror and shine sunlight at specific locations on Earth. The goal is to launch a constellation of about 4,000 of these huge mirrors by 2030, expanding the world's access to solar energy and increasing its availability during peak usage hours in the morning and at night.
Company speaks the constellation could also increase crop yields and illuminate rescue missions, defense operations and entire cities. Reflect Orbital even claims that customers can eventually “order sunlight to your exact coordinates at any time.”
But these rays can interfere with telescopes, a problem that astronomers are already dealing with. growing light pollution around the world and in space. Most astronomers say According to an August survey by the American Astronomical Society, the constellation will influence their work.
It's “like having a full moon every night, and it would have devastating consequences for astronomy,” said Siegfried Eggl, co-director of the International Astronomical Union's Center for Dark and Quiet Skies. said Gizmodo. In response to similar criticism, Reflect Orbital said Bloomberg that it aims to stay away from observatories and will share its satellite positions with scientists. Those who study the night sky there were already problems with visual pollution from the increasingly crowded low-orbit scramble of Starlink and other prolific satellite initiatives.
Of course, this harm will not stop in space. Light pollution disrupts the day-night cycle, which regulates earthly creatures for billions of years. And from our planet, these thousands of hyper-reflective satellites can resemble fast-moving stars—so migratory birds and other animals that look to the stars for navigation can get lost.
It is also possible that the large number of mirrors involved may not be enough. A planned constellation of several thousand satellites may provide only a few minutes of light in a given location. The company would need thousands more to stretch that time to an hour, according to astronomers Michael G.I. Brown and Matthew Kenworthy. marked For Talk.
“The cost that this would have, not just to astronomy but to civilization as a whole, and the environmental consequences, in my personal opinion, is not worth the effort,” Eggle said. said To Gizmodo. Perhaps this proposal is just the latest reflection of humanity's long quest to change the laws of the cosmos.
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Main image: Jacob W. Frank/Wikimedia Commons
