Oh great, another way to mess up our one and only planet.
Locals in a rural area of California were recently startled to see dazzlingly bright light shining down from nearby mountains at night, illuminating a swathe of the desert below.
Unbeknown to them, the strange nocturnal illumination was the latest step in a company’s plan to erect thousands of giant mirrors in space to reflect sunlight on to the Earth during night-time.
What could possibly go wrong? Besides everything?
A coalition of environmentalists and astronomers are far less excited about Reflect Orbital’s ambitions, however. These groups have criticized the company and the FCC for threatening a harmful change to the separation of night and day that will affect everything from people’s sleep to wildlife and the ability to see the stars from Earth.
“This is an idiotic project,” said Jan Hasselman, a senior attorney with Earthjustice, an environmental group. “There are a huge number of unresolved questions and significant potential impacts. Literally all of life on Earth evolved based on the rhythm of day and night and there is a ton of data showing that messing with this is not a good idea.”
Oh but darkness is dark. Ew. It’s much better to have bright light every hour of every day all year long. It’s also better to eat nothing but candy forever.
In August, four groups represented by Earthjustice asked the FCC to reconsider its approval, citing concerns that opening up the skies to mirrored satellites, which would ascend to about 400 miles (645km) above the Earth’s surface before reflecting light back, would cause a litany of problems.
Animals such as birds, insects and mammals rely on the reliable change between day and night to feed, shelter and mate, with any change to this being potentially disastrous for some species.
Astronomers, meanwhile, have complained that this night-time glare would worsen existing light pollution and spur an overall rush to add more satellites to orbit – Elon Musk’s SpaceX plans to place 1 million celestial datacenters around Earth – that will obscure the stars and cause more space debris that could descend as pollution back to our world.
There are also concerns that the scrambling of night and day will harm people’s health by disrupting their circadian rhythms as they sleep. Looking directly at the unusual glaring sunlight at night would also, much like doing so during a solar eclipse, harm people’s eyes.
Pff. Details. All that can be worked out later. Let’s do away with nighttime right now!