living daylights (13. 944)

Courtesy of Weird Universe, we are directed to the exploits of a start-up called Reflect Orbital, which demonstrates its potential to offer “sunlight as a service” claiming to be able to redirect sunbeams, intensity adjustable from “noon to moon” via an array of fifty thousand satellites equipped with mirrors, illuminating a five kilometre radius. The chain of reflective material could sustain the beam as individual satellites drift away and continue targetting with the next one in the chain. Whilst the company is pretty chuffed about this advance in geo-engineering, usually such proposals are subject to serious debate prior to execution, if they get off the ground at all, pointing out how the technology could be used to extend the operating day of photovoltaic generators indefinitely, light up industrial sites, aid in nighttime search and rescue missions or even for agriculture. Their enthusiasm is not shared by the scientific community who see this network as another blow for ground based astronomy (see previously) and further begs the question of vesting such power in a for-profit company and whether one enterprise or community’s access to daylight savings might be throttled for the sake of a higher bidder.