Sunlight on demand: the satellites that could brighten our nights

Forget streetlamps, this company wants to start making nights brighter with the help of thousands of satellites.

It seems like everything is on demand these days, from takeout and taxis to cologne that smells like dirt (yes, dirt) on Amazon. But what about a company that wants to bend sunlight to humanity's will?

Reflect Orbital, an aerospace company in Los Angeles County, wants to let solar farms keep generating power after dark using a constellation of satellites that deliberately reflect sunlight down to Earth. Unlike ordinary satellites, which produce glare incidentally, these would be intentionally engineered to brighten the night sky—even in the dead of night. Seasonal affective disorder sufferers, stand up.

The first satellite, a test craft called Eärendil-1, is slated for launch in 2026. If all goes well, thousands more would follow, eventually forming a constellation of about 4,000 by 2030. Each would carry a nearly 180-foot mirror designed to focus sunlight on a patch of Earth. The illuminated area would be enormous—more than 4 miles across—and far brighter than the full moon, though still much dimmer than the midday sun.

Reflect Orbital founder Ben Nowack tested the concept closer to the ground. A hot-air balloon carried a smaller mirror, bouncing sunlight onto solar panels and sensors. The setup produced about half the energy of direct midday sun. That’s enough to be useful, yes, but scaling up to orbit introduces a host of logistical hurdles. To deliver the same intensity from much higher above, a much larger reflector would be required. The company’s solution is more modest and aims to capture roughly 20 percent of full sunlight. But even that would require thousands of satellites to keep any one area continuously lit.

There's another wrinkle. Satellites at this altitude travel lightning quick, which means they’re within range of a specific location for no more than a few minutes. The company envisions an orbit that follows the sun, hitting ground targets near dawn and dusk. That means city streets, rural towns and open fields could all get brief, startling bursts of extra light.

Imagine walking outside and seeing a patch of sky flare brighter than the Moon, drifting overhead. On the other hand, there are plenty of potential drawbacks and pitfalls. Astronomers could lose access to pristine dark skies, and nocturnal wildlife may struggle to adapt to sudden, unnatural daylight.

Reflect Orbital isn’t shy about its ambitions. Nowack has floated the idea of a 250,000-satellite constellation — more than the total number of cataloged satellites and large pieces of space debris combined. The plan here is still theoretical, but the idea itself is a fascinating 1980s sci-fi movie tease of a future where our nights could suddenly become as bright as the day.

Report a Typo