this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2025
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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.

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[–] nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Oh fuck we're in a Futurama episode.

[–] Pacattack57@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago

This isn’t even possible and the cost even if it was would be ASTRONOMICAL.

[–] proper@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago

simpsons did it!

[–] drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 3 days ago
[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago

Futurama did it first.

[–] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago
[–] julysfire@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

What are the space laws for if we nudge it into the sun?

[–] luciferofastora@feddit.org 3 points 2 days ago

Fun fact: pushing things into the sun is really difficult. Short version: imagine spinning a pendulum, then trying to slow it down, except the pendulum is 100kg (200lbs) and moving at 87 Mach.


Long version:

Anything launching from earth will have a significant orbital velocity around the sun by virtue of starting at the earth's own velocity (~30km/s, about 67000 mph). That velocity makes it hard to actually reach the sun.

Consider that even the sun's gravity isn't enough to pull in the earth at that speed. Simply applying thrust towards the sun would have to amount to a significant portion of the sun's gravity to make a noticeable difference.

So to reach the sun, you'd ideally have to get rid of that excess orbital velocity instead. That requires a lot of force, to put it mildly. That kind of force requires powerful boosters and a lot of fuel. Of course, getting those engines and that fuel up there also takes powerful engines and a lot of fuel. But the larger the rocket, the heavier it'll be, so it'll require even more fuel...

There's a phenomenon dubbed the "Tyranny of the Rocket Equation". It describes the problem that, at some point, the extra weight required to make a rocket more powerful is greater than the extra power it provides. That basically puts a limit on how strong a given engine can get. There's a lot of work being done on getting them to be more efficient, so that limit is getting higher, but the bottom line is:

It would require an immense amount of resources to slow an object enough to toss it into the sun, and more resources to get them to that object in the first place.

Physics is a cruel mistress and a mean spoilsport.

[–] demonsword@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

nudging them to burn up in the atmosphere is much more doable

[–] TORFdot0@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] airbornestar@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Just like a certain great philosopher said, "The sun is a deadly laser"

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[–] Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 days ago

Yeah, but think of the potential shareholder value!

...allowing paying customers to generate solar power, grow crops and replace urban lighting.

What a great idea! There aren't any other ways to generate or store solar power, grow crops beyond daytime hours, or create good urban lighting...

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Hey so, this might seem pretty extreme but um....

People who even attempt to steal sunlight should die. I don't care how, they should just be dead.

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[–] Arghblarg@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)
[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 days ago

🎵 Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand. I don’t care, I’m still free, you can’t take the sky from me.

Wait, no, don’t take the sky from me!

[–] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 days ago

for solar, a 5km diameter solar farm might hold 10m square meters of panels. at 250w each, 2.5gw solar farm. 4 times a full moon, is 1/100000th the rated capacity (noon at equator) of panels, and so 25kw of power. At 10c/kwh electricity revenue potential, such a farm (exists only in China) could break even offering to rent night light at $2.50/hour.

Batteries charged by solar can deliver profitable electricity at night for far less than 10c/kwh.

If you just want more light somewhere, it would be far cheaper to do from ground systems.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

I remember the mickey mouse series where scroge did just that, or was it donald. That was from way before year 2000 BTW.

So what's next, solar roadways?

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