China to make new 'moon'?

[Pyan]

"A Chinese company has announced ambitious plans to put a "fake moon" into space to brighten the night sky.

According to the People's Daily state newspaper, officials at a private aerospace institute in Chengdu want to launch this "illumination satellite" in orbit by 2020, and say it will be bright enough to replace street lights."

Next stop: the power-beaming satellite beloved of SF writers for years? Watch this space! (hah)...


Fake moon: Could China really light up the night sky?

 

[Mouse]

Urgh. Why? People are stupid.

 

[Ray Pullar]

So it's Die Another Day?

 

[Av Demeisen]

When's the Chinese equivalent of April Fools' Day?

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Ok, NOW I know why we need a Space Force.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

 

[Parson]

This "moon light" idea sounds like something Donald Trump would say.

 

[Graymalkin]

Werewolves on demand.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Werewolves on demand.

Ohhhh I think you've stumbled onto something. It was nice knowing you.

 

[Cathbad]

Ok, NOW I know why we need a Space Force.

To turn off the night light?

 

[BAYLOR]

This world gets stranger and stranger every day .

 

[Ursa major]

it will be bright enough to replace street lights

So much for dealing with light polution....

But perhaps the Chinese government isn't keen on amateur astronomy.

 

[Harpo]

dear China, kindly take your nightlight and shove it where the sun shines. My darkness is not for piddling about with.
Yours in celery, Laird Of Lewis, edge of the world.

 

[Graymalkin]

It's a sham.
Whether using the sun or by firing beams at the mirror from the ground and angling it just so, one could reach 'targets' otherwise beyond line of sight.
p.s. Merry Chriiiss ........ zzzzt ... aargghh...hhelp meeee I'mm meltingah! Oh the agony ... can't reach the Ambre Solaire ... need a drink. No, seriously, I need a drink.

 

[Ray Pullar]

Will this upset lunar new year festivals across the far east? Or will they shutter it?

 

[Edward M. Grant]

Ok, NOW I know why we need a Space Force.

During the Vietnam War, there was a proposal to replace the descent stage of Apollo LEMs with huge, deployable mirrors, and station crews up there to light up the Vietnam jungles at night. So it's not a terribly new idea.

There's a document on NTRS describing the plan, but I don't remember the document number or name.

On a not-very-related note, I believe there was also a plan to fly a LEM to Soviet satellites and spray paint over the sensors.

 

[Ray Pullar]

I've watched a documentary about the classified military Saturn V program which was to place a manned military observatory in orbit. It was scrapped in the early seventies. Tesla supposedly claimed he could make the upper atmosphere fluorescent turning night into day.

 

[Cathbad]

There are reasons we have - and need - night. Why are all these fools trying to do away with it??

 

[Ray Pullar]

It's inconvenient. One cannot see anything for a start.

 

[Ray Pullar]

On a not-very-related note, I believe there was also a plan to fly a LEM to Soviet satellites and spray paint over the sensors.

It's great when the U.S. government starts behaving like juvenile delinquents and teenaged hoodlums. "Lets slash its tyres and put sugar in the gas."