The U.S. has approved plans by a Hawthorne-based startup to test a satellite that would use a 60-foot mirror to then reflect sunlight back to planet Earth after dark. Reflect Orbital says that it would power solar farms, provide light for rescue workers, and illuminate city streets.
Access to the Sun on Demand and When it’s Needed
Reflect Orbital plans to have more than 50,000 satellites in action by 2035. However, some astronomers, wildlife experts and others oppose this idea completely (thank god!). They claim that the light from the mirrors could distract airplane pilots, could wreak havoc on astronomical observations and interfere with sleep-wake cycles.
Reflect Orbital CEO Explains Company Mission Selling Sunlight
Thank you, Cyrus, for this incredible event. It’s my pleasure to introduce what Reflect Orbital is building to you. We’re building a constellation of satellites to reflect sunlight onto the dark side of the Earth. Each one of these little satellites will reflect sunlight to a customer around the world.
How Anyone Can Get Sunlight
I’m going to share a little bit more about who those customers are and how you can get this sunlight. We want to make it as easy as possible for people. So you can imagine using an app and reflect sunlight over to your exact location, wherever you are, in under 30 seconds at the touch of a button. All Reflect Orbital has to do is rotate satellites and reflect sunlight that’s passing by us in space.
BS Pitch on Reflect Orbital Video Stats
We released this video, it was actually just me and my co-founder Tristan filmed it, and it ended up getting 55 million views and brought in 264,000 applications from 157 countries around the world. Reflect Orbital saw applications from Indiana and India both complaining about the same thing, our street lighting infrastructure is not very good, I don’t feel safe walking home at night, I want some sunlight.
More BS About How Reflecting Sun Can Help in Emergencies
We also heard a lot of people asking for sunlight for emergency response applications. You can imagine being in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, somebody has an emergency, they fall overboard, you have to wait a couple hours for a helicopter to show up and provide some light. Well, we can do the same thing a lot faster. All you have to do is hit a button on either a phone or a satellite connected device and Reflect Orbital can get you sunlight immediately and you’re able to see a very large area. It’s actually a 6,000 acre area, I’ll get into that later. You can see everything around you, so it’s going to be a lot faster as well. It’s not like a normal helicopter searchlight, it’s giant.
Reflecting Sun for Workers and the Cost
You can also use Reflect Orbital for building things no matter where you are. You could be at the North Pole, you could be right near a small town. You don’t have to bring anything on a truck. You just hit a button and you can reflect sunlight from space. It’s not very expensive. It’s a couple thousand dollars an hour and that’s about it. You can use it for as long as you want.
