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Reflect Orbital is selling sunlight using a constellation of in-space reflectors

1 points by vyrotek 2y ago

uberman 2y ago
Don't just take my word for it that this is sus... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkjyeI0ykGM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkjyeI0ykGM
uberman 2y ago
Seems sus to me. How big is each "small satellite reflector" going to be? If the area illuminated is the size of the mirror you will get what a handful of commercial panels covered. If it is diffused then you get more panels but each getting less power than daylight. With the price of solar going to next to nothing what is the use of and who would pay enough to cover the cost to launch and maintain the mirrors. If this is actually meant to light up your camp site at night and is somehow priced for consumers why would people not just troll their neighbors. I cant imagine any kind if formal approval to deploy these things with the potential for consumer directed light polution. Hell, I cant even put proper lighting on my barn without a variance from the town. The more I think about this, the sketchier it gets.
- api 2y ago
  It’s the future. I can prank someone by ordering them some sunlight reflected from space.
  - uberman 2y ago
    Potentially, but how is the provider going to get launch and airspace approval for distribution of consumer based light pollution pranking?
  - wkat4242 2y ago
    The spot is 4km across according to their site so you'll be trolling a whole lot of people. Also clearly this video is fake. Smart marketing though
    - uberman 2y ago
      So here is my main concern. The spot is going to be 4km across. Is the mirror in space going to be 4km across, is it going to be even 100m across? Let's say somehow the mirror is the size of a football field that light distributed over a 4km patch will be 0.03% of the intensity of daylight and would be expected result in 0.03% of the energy.
      - wkat4242 2y ago
        Even 0.03% of daylight is going to make a huge difference considering the human eye interprets beighrness logarithmically. But no the mirror won't be 4km across. It's impossible
- wmf 2y ago
  Peak electricity demand is now right after sunset (the duck curve) so getting a few more hours out of a solar plant would really help.
  - uberman 2y ago
    Out of a plant sure. How big is the mirror? The size of a solar farm? I would doubt it. The light will be either too diffuse or too small to be of any value on the scale of a solar farm. Someone in a different post says the illuminated patch will be 4km across and if the mirror is somehow the size of a football field that will result in 0.03% of intensity of daylight. So about 10x brighter than the moon. So we are potentially in the ballpark of a year of nightly reflected light to get a single days worth of sun for a 4km wide solar farm. Assuming the mirrors are actually the size of football fields. For context that would make the mirrors 38x the size of the solar arrays that power the space station.
deleted 2y ago
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1 points by vyrotek 2y ago

Don't just take my word for it that this is sus... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkjyeI0ykGM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkjyeI0ykGM

uberman 2y ago

Seems sus to me. How big is each "small satellite reflector" going to be? If the area illuminated is the size of the mirror you will get what a handful of commercial panels covered. If it is diffused then you get more panels but each getting less power than daylight. With the price of solar going to next to nothing what is the use of and who would pay enough to cover the cost to launch and maintain the mirrors. If this is actually meant to light up your camp site at night and is somehow priced for consumers why would people not just troll their neighbors. I cant imagine any kind if formal approval to deploy these things with the potential for consumer directed light polution. Hell, I cant even put proper lighting on my barn without a variance from the town. The more I think about this, the sketchier it gets.

api 2y ago
It’s the future. I can prank someone by ordering them some sunlight reflected from space.
- uberman 2y ago
  Potentially, but how is the provider going to get launch and airspace approval for distribution of consumer based light pollution pranking?
- wkat4242 2y ago
  The spot is 4km across according to their site so you'll be trolling a whole lot of people. Also clearly this video is fake. Smart marketing though
  - uberman 2y ago
    So here is my main concern. The spot is going to be 4km across. Is the mirror in space going to be 4km across, is it going to be even 100m across? Let's say somehow the mirror is the size of a football field that light distributed over a 4km patch will be 0.03% of the intensity of daylight and would be expected result in 0.03% of the energy.
    - wkat4242 2y ago
      Even 0.03% of daylight is going to make a huge difference considering the human eye interprets beighrness logarithmically. But no the mirror won't be 4km across. It's impossible
wmf 2y ago
Peak electricity demand is now right after sunset (the duck curve) so getting a few more hours out of a solar plant would really help.
- uberman 2y ago
  Out of a plant sure. How big is the mirror? The size of a solar farm? I would doubt it. The light will be either too diffuse or too small to be of any value on the scale of a solar farm. Someone in a different post says the illuminated patch will be 4km across and if the mirror is somehow the size of a football field that will result in 0.03% of intensity of daylight. So about 10x brighter than the moon. So we are potentially in the ballpark of a year of nightly reflected light to get a single days worth of sun for a 4km wide solar farm. Assuming the mirrors are actually the size of football fields. For context that would make the mirrors 38x the size of the solar arrays that power the space station.

deleted 2y ago

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