Startup Plans April Launch for a Satellite Reflect Sunlight to Earth at Night
Source: Slashdot
Overview
A start‑up called Reflect Orbital proposes to use large, mirrored satellites to redirect sunlight to Earth at night. The concept, first noted by Slashdot in 2022, now anticipates launching its first satellite in April. Founder Ben Nowack describes the vision as largely aspirational at this stage.
Technical Details
Reflect Orbital’s satellites would act like artificial “stars.” A single satellite, 50 feet across, would:
- Appear on the northern horizon
- Sweep across the sky, illuminating a 5‑kilometer circle on the ground
- Set on the southern horizon about five minutes later
Customers could order multiple “stars” via an app—up to ten simultaneously in the north—to make the night brighter.
- Two such artificial stars are currently in development at the company’s factory.
- The plan is to eventually build satellites three times larger than the initial unit.
- If the roadmap proceeds as intended, Reflect Orbital aims to have 50,000 satellites orbiting at an altitude of roughly 400 miles by 2035.
Business Model
Nowack intends to begin selling the lighting service primarily to developing nations or regions lacking streetlights. The long‑term goal is to illuminate major cities and enable round‑the‑clock operation of solar farms and other businesses that can afford the service. He likens the technology to the historic invention of crop irrigation, arguing that it would free people from having to “wait for the sun to shine.”
Regulatory Context
- The article also references Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which seeks to launch up to one million satellites to serve as orbiting data centers—about 70 times the current satellite population.
- The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) grants a categorical exclusion from environmental review for satellites, stating that their operations “normally do not have significant effects on the human environment.”
- Public comment periods for the two proposals close on March 6 and March 9.