A plan to launch an 'artificial moon' to illuminate the city at night

by Robert Wiedemann

Chengdu Aerospace Science and Technology Microelectronics System Research (CASC), a private aerospace company, is advancing an amazing plan to illuminate Chengdu, the city of western China, with a moon made artificially rather than street lights.

Chinese city 'plans to launch artificial moon to replace streetlights' | Cities | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/oct/17/chinese-city-plans-to-launch-artificial-moon-to-replace-streetlights

This Chinese City Wants to Launch an 'Artificial Moon' to Replace Street Lights
https://www.sciencealert.com/chinese-city-planning-artificial-moon-to-light-up-streets-at-night

According to Wu · Chumfeng, the president of CASC, a plan to launch an artificially created moon is in progress in order to save the electricity cost used for street lighting in Chengdu. It seems that the artificial moon launched will reflect the sunlight, not the energy on the earth, to illuminate Chengdu.

The artificial moon does not need to be a giant spherical object like the real moon, but it is said to be a thin plate like shape on the ground. When launched, a wing like a solar panel opens, a board with a special reflective coating reflects sunlight directly and will send light to Chengdu. The artificial moon can illuminate the area of ​​10 to 80 km diameter on the ground, and it is possible to control the lighting position in units of tens of meters.

by Kristine Weilert

According to Chhen Feng, the test of the artificial moon has already started several years ago, and the launch of the satellite as 2020 is planned. However, The Guardian overseas media states that "It is unclear whether Chengdu and the Chinese government support this plan."

This is the first time to actually substitute town lights in an artificial moon, but in 2013, in the city of Rjukan in Norway, a mirror controlled by three large computers tracks the movement of the sun A project called reflecting light in town was held. You can see the lighting in the dark city using the reflection of the mirror in the following movie.

Giant mirrors reflect sunshine into dark Norway town of Rjukan - YouTube


In addition, in the 1990s a team of Russian astronomers and engineers succeeded in reflecting the sun's light back to the earth with the satellite launched into space. The New York Times reporting this experiment called "Znamya" wrote that "It was to irradiate the earth with light equivalent to the light of the full moon and test whether it can be used as lighting", and this The concept is the same as artificial moon.

After that, the team who developed Znamya planned to launch the evolution version prototype "Znamya 2.5", but failed to launch. After that, the project failed to raise funds, and the project finally used as lighting on the ground by reflecting the sunlight was canceled.

Kang Wei-min, chairman of Harbin Institute of Technology's Space Science Institute said, "The light of the satellite (artificial moon) is explained as light like dusk, which is like disturbing the animal's ecosystem There should not be anything. "