China may soon launch an artificial moon into the space to spread light in the night time as a one time solution to fight the cost of the streetlights.
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| nasa.gov |
Wu Chunfeng, the head of the Tian Fu New Area Science Society has announced to launch an artificial moon to light the night sky by 2020. This artificial satellite is called "illumination satellite" which is planned to orbit the city of Chengdu, China. The moon will glow simultaneously with the real moon and is supposed to glow multiple times brighter than the actual moon. To replace the streetlights in the urban areas, this organisation may launch three more satellite till 2022. The satellite will be launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, to orbit 300 miles above the city. It will use a reflector kind of coating to reflect the light. Wu Chunfeng said, that the artificial moon can easily be controlled by the humans for changing the brightness or location.
The moon by just lighting 50 square kilometers can save upto $174 million dollars each year. Working together, they’ll be able to light upto 3,600 to 6,400 square kilometers for up to 24 hours saving millions and millions of dollars every year.
Well it will be good to know that is not the first time someone is trying to launch an artificial moon into the space. In the 1990's the Russian Federal Space Agency tried to launch reflective panels in space but the satellites failed at the time of deployment and the whole project went down.
Chunfeng in an interview to China Daily said,“We will only conduct our tests in an uninhabited desert, so our light beams will not interfere with any people or Earth-based space observation equipment. When the satellite is in operation, people will see only a bright star above, and not a giant moon as imagined.”
This mission, if get successful, can create a new world for the space energy exploration.
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