The new Russian satellite may soon become the brightest "star" in the night sky. The Lighthouse will have to outshine everything in the sky except the sun thanks to a giant sheet of reflective material.
The satellite's developers say it can also be used to combat space debris with a parachute-like design that lowers the orbit of space debris so that they can burn up in Earth's atmosphere.
The project team has now launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $ 45,000 to complete satellite trials and fund the launch.
The Mayak project has already raised $ 33,000 thanks to two crowdfunding campaigns in Russia in 2014 and earlier this year.
The Mayak launch, scheduled for August, is expected to be carried out with the support of the Roscosmos corporation from the Soyuz 2 launch vehicle.
The developers are going to place the spacecraft in a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 600 km above the Earth.
This means that it will always be illuminated by rays of sunlight and will be able to reflect it on different parts of the Earth's surface as it rotates.
Promotional video:
The small spacecraft will launch a giant pyramidal solar reflector into orbit.
The reflector has an area of 16 square meters and is made of a thin polymer film that is 20 times thinner than a human hair.
Each rib will be 2.7 meters long with a total lateral surface area of 6 square meters.
A braking system has also been developed to open the parachute, which will catch space debris.
An important goal of the project is to promote the development of space research in the country, as well as to make science and technology more attractive to the younger generation.
A previously proposed idea for a reflective panel was to illuminate cities or other parts of the earth with reflected light and extend the daytime running of farms, according to Ars Technica.
The Mayak project team recently announced that they have raised enough funds to begin the next phase of testing.
“We are sending the spacecraft into orbit, where it will be the brightest star in the sky, visible from anywhere on our planet,” says Alexander Shaenko, head of the project and head of the modern cosmonautics program at Moscow State Machine-Building University.
“We want to show that space exploration is exciting and fun, but most importantly, today it is available to anyone interested in it.”
University students are also taking part in a crowdfunding campaign that will launch an orbiting spacecraft.