{"id":224934,"date":"2025-10-25T15:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T15:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/224934\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T15:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T15:43:07","slug":"scientists-oppose-huge-array-of-mirrors-in-space-that-shines-nighttime-sunlight-on-wealthy-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/224934\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Oppose Huge Array of Mirrors in Space That Shines Nighttime Sunlight on Wealthy Customers"},"content":{"rendered":"

These days, orbital real estate is growing increasingly cluttered<\/a> with all manner of communication, observation, research, and navigation satellites. It\u2019s a market worth $286 billion in 2022<\/a>, projected to grow precipitously in the coming years as mass production<\/a> takes off.<\/p>\n

One bold new startup is looking to cash in on the frenzy with a particularly bizarre approach: a massive array of space mirrors meant to reflect the Sun\u2019s light down to paying subscribers.<\/p>\n

Called Reflect Orbital, the venture started taking reservations<\/a> for \u201cspots of light\u201d back in August, showcasing its service with numerous mockup videos. In one clip, Reflect cofounder and former SpaceX intern Ben Nowack is shown messing around with the company\u2019s app on his phone. He scrolls across an overhead map of terrain, bringing a simulated spot of light over to the location he\u2019s supposedly standing.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, the immediate area is flooded with bright light from a shining beam in the night sky \u2014 likely an outdoor production light \u2014 a bizarre novelty that surely won\u2019t get old after the first five minutes.<\/p>\n

The company has yet to launch any of the 4,000 satellite mirrors it sold in its far-out pitch. However, the startup recently applied for a license with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch a 60-by-60 foot demo craft in April of 2026, Space.com reported<\/a> this week. That\u2019s after winning a $1.25 million contract<\/a> from the US Air Force, of all places, on top of a $20 million Series A funding round<\/a> to build out its \u201csunlight on demand\u201d service, which Reflect says will \u201cstrengthen the national defense of the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the pricing scheme is unknown, the company is targeting an extensive group<\/a> of deep-pocketed customers, billing its service as a solution for national defense, civil infrastructure, industrial agriculture, and \u201cleading brands\u201d who want to bring a \u201cnovel touch to their promotions.\u201d So far, the company says it\u2019s fielded over 260,000 applications from 157 countries to reserve satellite-reflected sunlight.<\/p>\n

Astronomers, however, aren\u2019t so gung-ho about the idea of a massive space mirror blinding the Earth with Sunlight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reflectors will be directing their light [even after they pass their target] because obviously they can\u2019t shut that off,\u201d John Berentine, an astronomer at the Silverado Hills Observatory told Space.com. \u201cThe beam reflected by these satellites is very intense, four times brighter than the full moon, and they will be flying multiple satellites in a formation. That will have an effect on wildlife in the directly illuminated area, but also, through atmospheric scattering, on the surrounding areas as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe central goal of this project is to light up the sky and extend daylight and obviously, from an astronomical perspective, that\u2019s pretty catastrophic,\u201d Robert Massey, deputy executive director at the Royal Astronomical Society of the UK told the publication.<\/p>\n

Massey added that it\u2019s not just a few crotchety scolds worried about Reflect\u2019s effect on the planet, but that the whole astronomical community was \u201cseriously concerned about the development.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Reflect spokesperson told Space.com not to worry, because each reflection is \u201chighly localized\u201d to a \u201c5-kilometer [3.1 mile] area for a finite period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the 2026 demonstration, observers at designated test sites will see the reflection as a bright moving star,\u201d they wrote. \u201cThe illuminated area on the ground will be a soft, moonlike glow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The startup adds that its orbital mirror array will be established in Sun-synchronous orbit, essentially circling the planet longitudinally from pole to pole. Since any spacecraft launched by this American startup will inevitably orbit the entire globe, it raises a thorny question: who should have the right to deploy a giant space mirror over the rest of the planet?<\/p>\n

More on satellites: SpaceX\u2019s Classified Military Satellites Emitting \u201cMysterious Signal\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"These days, orbital real estate is growing increasingly cluttered with all manner of communication, observation, research, and navigation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-224934","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}