Shooting for the moon

China's artificial moon project could be a game changer

In comparison to the various dynasties of the Middle Kingdom that built grandiose infrastructure such as the Great Wall and the Grand Canal, the present-day rulers of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) do not seem to be far behind their imperial predecessors. The creation of an artificial moon should not come as a surprise. The PRC has accomplished many impressive engineering feats. The Qinghai-Tibet Railway, for example, runs 2,000 km across challenging terrain at heights of above 5,000 metres. The Three Gorges Dam is the world’s largest. The PRC also has a big space footprint, with working space labs, and ambitions of establishing a permanent space station, and sending up crewed lunar missions. The so-called “Chengdu moon” would tap into that space expertise. The idea is to launch a geostationary satellite to redirect solar light to illuminate the city of Chengdu, which is the capital of the Southeastern province of Sichuan, with a population of 15 million. The city could reboot global municipal lighting standards if it succeeds in launching an illumination satellite to provide a “dusk-like glow” and replace its streetlights.

 

The satellite is to be designed by the Chengdu Aerospace Science and Technology Microelectronics System Research Institute. This is a private corporation with strong links to the local government, and it is a major contractor for the Chinese space programme. The satellite would have a mirrored exterior, with solar panels, to trap and redirect sunlight. It would be placed in orbit 500 km above Chengdu. It would be about eight times as bright as the full moon (which is about 380,000 km away). That luminescence would, according to the company’s chairman, result in street-level illumination about one-fifth as bright as normal streetlights. The satellite would actually look like a large, very bright star, rather than a disc-like moon. In theory, it could illuminate anywhere between 10 and 80 square km in one go, which means that it could save $175 million in annual energy bills. The mirroring can be switched around or turned off when required. No cost estimates have been released and, indeed, there’s a heap of testing to be done before the launch, which is scheduled for 2020. If it works, three more such artificial moons could be in the works by 2022. Taken together, a triad of such moons could, in theory, illuminate anywhere between 3,600 and 6,400 square km for all 24 hours, depending on weather conditions.

The project has been evaluated and approved by China’s Harbin Institute of Technology, which is ranked 6th globally among engineering colleges, and is one of the few academic institutions to have launched its own satellites. State-run China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, too, has approved the project. But some environmentalists have raised objections as they fear a negative impact on citizens and animals, especially if this moon disrupts the day-night cycle and affects metabolisms. For instance, the Chengdu region is known for its giant pandas. It is although unlikely that the thought of pandas suffering from insomnia will deter the Chinese; after all, they have already inflicted huge environmental damage by building giant dams and monstrous coal-burning plants. In fact, some engineers claim that there will actually be less light pollution if this works since the light from this moon will be dimmer than normal street lighting.

China, by the way, is not the only one. Similar experiments have been attempted on a much smaller scale in Russia and Norway, in regions close to the Arctic Circle. In 2013, the Norwegian town of Rjukan erected solar-powered computerised mirrors on a mountain peak to track the sun and illuminate the town square during the long, dark winter. But the Chinese project is much bigger than the Russian and Norwegian experiments. If the formidable engineering challenges are solved, and it doesn’t interfere with metabolisms, and it turns out to be cost-effective, it could add a new dimension to the space race among nations.