Huge sums are spent every day on lighting city streets at night, and in the interests of economy and ecology, it would be nice to reduce these sums. But reducing the quality of lighting or the number of lights is not wise from a safety point of view. What to do? The Chinese authorities believe that for this it is quite possible to use natural light, which will be reflected by special satellites from the Sun and illuminate the whole city at night.
The start of the ambitious project is scheduled for 2020, and the city of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, located in the southwest of the country, will participate in the experiment. According to the statements of the authors of the project, in 2 years 3 satellites with a specular reflecting surface will be sent into Earth orbit, which will reflect light directly to the city of Chengdu. If all goes well, the satellites will shine 8 times brighter than the moon, and the electricity savings will amount to 1.2 billion yuan (about $ 240 million) per year. According to one of the project developers Wu Chunfeng of the Chengdu Aerospace Science, Technology and Microelectronics Research Institute, The satellites are expected to enter orbit 500 kilometers above Earth and illuminate an area ranging from 10 to 80 square kilometers in diameter.
The Chinese news agency Xinhua also reports that the idea for the project originated from the work of a French artist, who depicted necklaces from mirrors hanging in the sky, illuminating the streets of Paris at night.
Vladimir Kuznetsov