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.
This is literally, actually a bond villain plot
Moonraker.
Moonraker was eugenics and nerve gas. Die Another Day was big space mirror.
Maggie Simpson will sort them out.
What about making our own startup that will make sure to destroy those orbital glasses?
Surface to space missiles seem to be a profitable entreprise
Just launch a ton of ball bearings into orbit, and end space flight for ever. Or at least for the forseeable future.
Edit: Bearing balls, actually. Ball bearings is where the bearing balls are. But we want them in orbit.
this is one of the worst ideas that has ever come from capitalism dawg what the fuck who even thinks of this what rich fuck is gonna be paying to make it daytime at night…
its not just impractical, it is just entirely pointless and we already have way too much space pollution because of fuckin starlink
Was it not so bad when the (ex) soviets did it?
This is past soviet collapse and a literal monetary venture the whole point was to use it to sell access to it for the few rich places that could possibly want that, thats capitalist theres literally no use for it except for use in trying to increase wealth for a smaller group that has access to the technology and can suddenly control natural resources without even colonizing or genociding a place to get it they can starve countries or have a permanent advantage at the cost of the rest of society
[johnny silverhand noises intensifies]
Reminds me of this other terrible dystopian idea I saw the other day: https://nz.news.yahoo.com/elon-musk-announces-plan-control-182840080.html
Glad billionaires think they can steal the sun and sell it back to us now.
Less Sun = Less Plants = Less Carbon Sink = 🤦
Capitalism will steal the very foundations of life and sell it to you to make a buck. They will siphon the life force from the earth in order to benefit themselves. I honestly try and look at things dispassionately and put it all in perspective but DAM it’s hard not to be emotional when you see what these fucking stinking pigs are up to on their mountain.
Thought I was in the boring dystopia community instead. I suppose I’ll just continue to hope that this is too impractical to happen or that those responsible aren’t competent enough to make it happen.
Don’t worry, this type of Space Nuttery is merely a way to extract money from even dumber billionaires.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaren
None of the Space Nuttery fantasies will ever happen.
This is obviously a scam directed at venture capitalists. There’s no way this is going to happen.
Okay, but can we execute these people for putting this concept into the world anyway?
Suncoin for sale.
Space debris target.
This exact same technology naturally allows capitalists to force everyone to pay not to have their sunlight blocked during the day.
I mean, the technology certainly has benefits, not in reflecting sunlight onto the dark side of the Earth. Nobody fucking needs that. Instead it should be used to shade a few percent of sunlight in order to control Earth’s warming climate.
But rich people gotta fuck things up. No single entity must ever be allowed to control orbital megastructures.
Rather then launching millions of tons of satellites, maybe the government could try regulating emissions? You know, remove cars, fossil fuel usage, create passenger rail etc? Improve society instead of doing literally the opposite?
Oh absolutely. Regulating emissions and mass carbon capture by replanting forests, then burying them is the only way. Ain’t like it would be even so easy as launching millions of shade satellites. An entire automated zero g manufacturing industry would have to be launched. And while that tickles my scifi nerd fancy, again, we can never allow a scant few humans to gatekeep space resources for themselves. That’s too much wealth and power.
Rich people should not have the choice to have fucking sunlight in the middle of the night.
They’re so fucking bored, they NEED to do stupid shit like this. They need to have what others don’t have.
If I was going to build death ray mirrors in space this is how I would pitch it.
Tf are people gonna do once you’ve built the death ray?
It’s not about selling sunshine, it’s about melting your enemies with the power of the sun.
Maybe we can hack it and use it to burn down Mar-a-Lago
