A Chinese company has announced ambitious plans to put a "fake moon" into space to brighten the night sky. According to the People's Daily state newspaper, officials at a private aerospace institute in Chengdu want to launch this "illumination satellite" in orbit by 2020, and say it will be bright enough to replace street lights. The straight-out-of-sci-fi news has sparked fascination, scepticism from scientists, lots of questions and outright mockery.
Not much - and the little information that is available is somewhat contradictory. People's Daily first reported it last week, quoting comments made at an innovation conference by Wu Chunfeng, chairman of the neatly named Chengdu Aerospace Science Institute Microelectronics System Research Institute Co, Ltd.
Wu said the idea had been in testing for a few years and the technology was now in place to make it happen, with a launch scheduled for 2020. The China Daily newspaper quoted Wu as saying that three "huge mirrors" could be launched by 2022. It's not clear from any of the reports whether this project has any official backing. The artificial moon would work as a mirror, reflecting sunlight back to Earth, according to China Daily.
---BBC
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