Launching a man-made object into space that reflects light so much that it can be seen on the ground has always been an interesting topic.

China's first satellite, Dongfanghong No. 1, was specially designed for this purpose to create a sphere behind the satellite that could be deployed, and its reflection could be found only by the naked eye at night when the light was good.

In the early 19th century, a man of the Hipsters conceived the idea of sending a mirror into space and reflecting it onto the streets of the Champs-Élysées.

This nonsensical idea is regarded as an anecdote in their own country, but the Alliance and Ami are intrigued, but they are inspired by a bigger idea than the hairy man.

The Argentine Defense Advanced Planning and Research Agency has come up with an ambitious plan to launch an artificial moon with a diameter of 300 meters and a weight of 4800 tons into low-earth orbit, which, according to the calculations of American engineers, will be 10 times brighter than a true moon, enough to illuminate the American people at night.

Technically, it wasn't that difficult to make an artificial moon, but it was staggering to make, costing $100 billion at the time. Considering that the artificial moon was too expensive to build, and that the Soviet Union had already sunset, the military finally sealed the plan.

But NASA saw the program's potential and took over research on the artificial moon because it thought it might be used to modify the Martian surface temperature and make it more efficient to charge solar cells when it colonized Mars in the future.

However, although Aramco's artificial moon failed to land during the Cold War, similar projects of the alliance went one step further and completed preliminary experiments directly into space.

Scientists from the consortium created a collapsible sunlight mirror from a sheet of aluminum just 5 millimeters thick, which, when fully unfolded in orbit, reaches a diameter of 20 meters and provides considerable illumination.

However, the satellite carrying the mirror successfully entered orbit, but unfortunately burned up during re-entry, and the alliance economy was on the verge of collapse at that time, and the project was ultimately abandoned.

Later, Lucia tried to resurrect this plan, and put a small mirror on the Mir space station, which was 25 meters in diameter when deployed, and the diameter of the ground irradiation area reached 4 kilometers, which was equivalent to the full moon state of a natural month.

Later, they were ready to develop a mirror that would allow the irradiation area to be up to 7 kilometers in diameter, but the mirror was torn up in the middle of the process, and research on an artificial moon was halted.

So what about Shuchuan, or the artificial moon of the Rongcheng Tianfu System Science Research Association?

Ye Changsi: "They have just put forward this idea, so they communicated with us, and plan to place a mirror that can cover an area of 3,400 to 6,400 square kilometers at an orbital altitude of 5,000 kilometers, that is, a diameter of 35 to 45 kilometers, and a diameter of about 500 meters in the sky, which is 8 times the brightness of the moon and about half of the normal daylight."

Such light intensity can not only cancel the electricity consumption for outdoor lighting, but also use solar power generation, saving at least 1.2 billion yuan in lighting costs for Chengdu every year. ”

Lin Ju: "......"

Imagining the appearance of a big flashlight shining down in the sky, Lin Ju couldn't help but shake his head.

"Rongcheng, that almost covered us, and I couldn't sleep that night."

Ye Changsi: "They are also discussing, because the artificial moon has three problems:

Because it is in low-earth orbit, the artificial moon runs at the same time as the satellite, and at least three networks are required to maintain uninterrupted illumination;

The orbit is too low and the angle changes at any time, requiring a maneuver that can operate almost constantly;

There is also the ecological impact on the ground, whether it will cause environmental disasters. ”

Lin Ju thought about it, the first two are actually not a problem, the 500-meter-diameter mirror takes a little effort, but it can be built slowly assembled, and the motorized device can use high-thrust electric propulsion, and the biggest trouble is the ecological impact.

Not to mention small animals, at least half of the people will object to sleeping when the window is still on, which is completely disrupting the schedule.

As for power generation, the efficiency of solar cells under the artificial moon is discounted by 5%, and it is not so easy to generate electricity on the grid.

Moreover, the lighting effect is also affected by the weather, after all, it is not ultra-high-intensity light like the sun, and Lin Ju is not optimistic.

Ye Changsi was very interested: "I think sunlight is actually a very precious resource, and collecting sunlight means collecting heat and light energy, and it is an energy source with almost no upper limit."

Thinking about it from another angle, the mirror only needs to be slightly adjusted to be able to push the light sail of the probe, and it can indeed transform the planet with an atmosphere. ”

"Then what do you mean ......"

Ye Changsi: "I think we can carry out small-scale experiments, and the most important thing we lack is cheap capacity, which is very suitable for some exploration work." ”

This time, Lin Ju nodded directly without hesitation, and the small-scale test will not have any effect, as for any artificial moon, the best place for it to exist is on the drawings.

Suddenly, a bright orange light in the distance illuminated the faces of the two men, and at the same time pulled a long shadow on the ground.

After a second or two, there was a slight tremor on the ground, and then it took another five or six seconds to hear a continuous popping sound in the air.

Lin Ju turned his head, and the Long March 7 began to rise with a 5-meter-diameter tank, and the tail flame of kerosene burning was like fireworks.

The 10 liquid oxygen kerosene engines rose until they became a tiny dot in the sky before disappearing into the night.

After more than ten seconds, a brilliant firework silently bloomed in the sky.

The burning solid particles flew according to a carefully choreographed trajectory, and after about 2 seconds, a rooster in the shape of a map of the motherland had already appeared in the sky, and it became more and more oppressive as it spread and fell in altitude.

Lin Juqing couldn't help but get goosebumps, and tightened the commemorative coat sent by the Aviation Development Commission.

The end of the fireworks show means that Chinese New Year's Eve has passed and the new year has begun.

Most people are ready to turn off the TV and rest, after all, for many people, the Spring Festival Gala program is getting more and more boring year by year, and the fireworks show is a bit interesting.

But on a transport ship in the port of Jingu, the crew who gathered to watch the show first dispersed to drink a cup of strong coffee, and then slowly sailed out of the port according to the guidance in the dark of night.

It is a converted medium-sized container ship, with seven large containers on its hull, which contains the rocket body of the second Long March 10 rocket and a full-state new-generation manned spacecraft.

The Chinese New Year will not affect the progress of the Dawning plan, the Long March 10 Yao-2 rocket will arrive at the Qiongzhou launch site on the fourth day of the new year, and will be transferred to the launch site on the sixth day of the new year.

New Year, New Rocket, it's very reasonable and festive.

(End of chapter)