"SpaceX's Starlink Internet service, built with thousands of telescope-photobombing satellites, is the poster child for this problematic trend, but it's not alone. The latest start-up with brash out-of-this-world plans is Reflect Orbital, which has built a business case for beaming sunlight from orbit to power solar farms after dark. The company, based in Hawthorne, Calif., next to SpaceX's former headquarters, recently sought a license from the Federal Communications Commission to launch"
"its first satellite in 2026 and plans to put thousands more in orbit. Maybe that could work. But experts have technological, environmental and safety concerns. Marketed as sunlight on demand, Reflect Orbital's high-frontier initiative is just one among many; other companies in the proliferating space industry want to launch space advertisements, human remains and made-to-order artificial meteor showers. Such wide-rangingand, to some, objectionableprojects are part of an ongoing shift from government-sponsored science or defense-focused missions to a new, commerce-dominated space era."
Tech companies are pursuing disruptive commercial projects in orbit, exemplified by SpaceX's Starlink and Reflect Orbital's proposal to beam sunlight from space to power solar farms after dark. Reflect Orbital, based in Hawthorne, Calif., applied to the FCC for a 2026 test satellite and envisions thousands of satellites. Experts have technological, environmental and safety concerns about sunlight-on-demand and other commercial concepts such as space advertisements, launching human remains and artificial meteor showers. The trend represents a shift from government science and defense missions toward commerce-dominated space activity. The planned test craft EARENDIL-1a would deploy an 18-by-18-meter mirror in a roughly 600-kilometer orbit.
#commercial-space-industry #solar-power-from-orbit #satellite-megaconstellations #environmental-and-safety-concerns
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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