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When humans mess with the sun in science fiction, it’s usually when a supervillain covers it up and imposes perpetual darkness. A space technology company called Reflect Orbital wants to do the opposite: bring sunlight to the dark side of Earth using satellites equipped with giant mirrors. the FCC approved One satellite was launched as a test trial on Thursday, and some scientists are already unhappy with it.
The approval gave Reflect Orbital the green light to send the Eärendil-1 satellite into orbit. It is a relatively small spacecraft, weighing 142 kilograms (313 pounds).
In its body is a thin-film square mirror measuring 18 meters by 18 meters (about 60 feet by 60 feet). The satellite is scheduled to be launched into space aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 spacecraft later in 2026.
Eärendil-1 promises to reflect sunlight back onto Earth in a 3-mile circle that can be directed to essentially anywhere that doesn’t have sunlight. The company has Web tool This shows you what this would look like, and it’s wide enough to light up entire neighborhoods, making it look like daytime when it’s actually night.
Earendil-1 is able to reflect sunlight out to a radius of approximately three miles, giving it the ability to light up an entire neighborhood.
Ostensibly, this will be used to power solar panels at night, thus bypassing a major drawback of solar panels: they can only collect energy during the day. According to To reflect the orbitalelectricity demand rises right when the sun goes down, which means power companies have to make the most of energy when the sun isn’t there to help. This increases the use of fossil fuels, which is a Contributing factor to climate change.
Reflect Orbital says it wants to deploy 50,000 of these satellites if the technology demonstration is successful. This would place 16.2 million square meters of mirrors in low Earth orbit to illuminate large parts of the Earth on demand. Currently, only the Eärendil-1 satellite has been approved for launch.
Only one satellite has been approved for testing at the moment, but Reflect Orbital wants to put 50,000 of them into orbit one day.
Scientists say this could be a disaster
Academics had long opposed the launch of Eärendil-1 before FCC approval. more 1800 comments They were conducted during the proposal phase, and most were negative.
Researchers tend to agree that having 50,000 satellites beaming sunlight back to Earth might be just as bad as having a supervillain block out all of the sunlight.
Several organizations have filed complaints, including the American Astronomical Society and DarkSky, among others, citing potential problems directing the equivalent of 16 million square miles of sunlight to Earth in the middle of the night.
“The concept of illuminating Earth from orbit represents a new category of artificial light at night with global environmental, cultural and regulatory consequences,” DarkSky said in a statement. Open letter To reflect the orbital. “Based on current scientific evidence, we do not see a viable path for this technology to align with the principles of responsible lighting or with our mission to protect natural darkness.”
Astronomers are also high on the list of people who oppose lighting a large mirror at night, noting that even a single mirror flying in front of a telescope could easily overwhelm sensitive equipment at ground-based observatories. Since most astronomy research has to be done at specific times, thanks to the motion of the larger universe, missing the opportunity to observe something thanks to an army of mirrors could cause unrecoverable data loss.
Scientists from other parts of the world They are also unhappy With the idea that one company in one country can destroy the sky for the rest of the world.
“A single RO satellite such as Eärendil-1 is expected to have an optical brightness of at least 2 to 4 times that of the full Moon,” the American Astronomical Society said. In a complaint To the Federal Communications Commission. The AAS also points out that it’s not just mirrors; Because light scatters when it hits Earth’s atmosphere, the mirrors will make the surrounding sky too bright to see, causing further disruption to the search.
“For example, next to the sharp edge of a full moon, the sky is 10,000 times brighter than a dark sky without a moon,” the academy said. “We expect a similar level of brightness surrounding Eärendil-1.”
Orbital reflects admits that this is Regulatory blind spotPointing out that “there is no fixed regulatory framework for space energy and lighting services.” The company says it is open to regulation and working alongside scientists, while also stating that it intends to learn as much as it can from its test satellite before sending an additional 50,000 satellites into space.
