Can you accept the appearance of another "moon" in the sky? I believe that most people will feel that if there are two moons in the sky, it must be a vision of the sky. But the reality may not be a vision, but "technology to change life", because there are scientists think that the moon is not bright enough, so want to create an "artificial moon" for our use.

This artificial moon is not simple, it is eight times brighter than the moon! It can light up the city at night and become a replacement for street lights. So what's the deal with the artificial moon project? It was scheduled to be launched in 2020, how come there is no more?

Next, let's take a look at how people actually plan to create the moon's "twin sister", this approach is really feasible?

The "artificial moon" project

This idea of an artificial moon has actually been thought of by scholars in many countries. For example, in the 20th century, a French artist said that a series of mirrors could be hung in the air to reflect the sunlight and illuminate all the streets of Paris!

Later, scientists in the former Soviet Union and the United States have proposed the idea, the former Soviet Union and even a little practice. So, is the "artificial moon" we are talking about today made by these countries? No. The artificial moon project we are talking about today was proposed by our country.

Back in 2018, the Chengdu Tianfu System Science Research Society in Sichuan proposed an idea about an artificial moon. And the principle of making this moon is actually somewhat similar to that French artist's idea. In simple terms, it is the use of 3 huge reflective mirrors running alternately to reflect the sunlight.

According to the introduction, in this case, the reflection of the artificial moon is able to cover an area of 3600 square kilometers to 6400 square kilometers of the ground. Importantly, its maximum brightness is eight times that of the moon.

Researchers said at the time: our "artificial moon" is actually a kind of artificial space lighting satellite carrying a large space reflector. According to the relevant research and development plan, the "artificial moon" in 2020 to complete the overall verification work from the launch, into orbit, deployment, lighting to control.

It is evident that the manufacturing plan of artificial moon was indeed on the agenda at that time. So, how come the artificial moon, which was scheduled to be launched in 2020, is no longer in the works? In fact, this is related to the controversy on the artificial moon, after all, the project is not "perfect".

The controversy related to the artificial moon

The idea of an artificial moon has been controversial since it was proposed last century. Some people believe that an artificial moon can save energy and bring convenience to people. However, others believe that it is against the laws of nature to create a moon that hangs in the sky, which could have serious consequences. So, is the existence of the "artificial moon" good or bad?

First of all, scientists proposed the artificial moon plan, is to solve the problem of urban electricity. As we all know, the big cities now, many neighborhoods are "bright lights" all night long, especially for innovative technology companies are piled up in places, office buildings to 11:00 at night, still bright.

Therefore, once the artificial moon is realized, it will be able to use the energy stored during the day to create the effect of twilight at night. In this case, things like street lights and stuff can be turned off, saving energy significantly.

According to estimates, if the artificial moon were to illuminate an area of 50 square kilometers, the annual electricity cost savings in that area could reach $1.2 billion. If this technology were widely used, the energy savings would be unimaginable.

However, energy efficiency does not make everyone approve of the plan. More people believe that the appearance of the artificial moon is that people are using technology to forcibly change the laws of nature. Whether it is people or creatures on earth, these years have been used to the alternating day and night life, now suddenly to extend the day time, which will inevitably cause "biological clock disruption" phenomenon.

You know, now in the absence of artificial light, there has been a large number of "stay up late crowd", whether it is active or passive, stay up late crowd to expand the size of the disease has led to a variety of diseases become younger age. This is still in the case of the dark night, if there is no "dark night"? What would be the result, we do not know.

Not to mention that humans can't just think about themselves when they do anything, but also about other creatures. In nature, many animals are nocturnal and need to come out at night to hunt or migrate. Living in a crowded metropolis, the survival space of animals is already very small, and now the creation of artificial moon, is not the same as depriving them of "time"?

Data show that nocturnal migrating or feeding birds navigate by moonlight or starlight, and that artificial light can cause them to veer off course and fly toward dangerous urban night skies.

Of course, others believe that the artificial moon will double the level of light pollution, making astronomical observation activities disturbed as well as after it and the moon into the same orbit, may affect the tidal movement of the Earth, bringing unimaginable natural disasters.

In addition, it is not so easy to build an artificial moon. Although in our opinion, it is to place the mirror in the right place. But according to the researchers' accounts, in order to ensure the distance between the artificial moon and the ground, it can only be placed in the middle of the near-Earth orbit.

How to place the three satellites and make them work perfectly alternately is a difficult problem, in addition to the subsequent attitude precision control, etc. is also a difficult problem to overcome. Not to mention, what kind of material should be used for the mirror, how to ensure that it does not collide with other satellites and work stably, etc.

The controversy caused by the artificial moon and the technical difficulties to realize it have become the reason for its gradual absence. In addition, you may not understand, although only three satellites, but the preliminary experiments and follow-up maintenance, all need to invest a lot of money. The question is, after spending so much money to build it, we can't just let it shine for a while and then "scrap" it, right?

So in this case, it is still very difficult to actually launch an artificial moon and put it into use. In fact, the existence of this plan on hold, many people have long expected. Because of the current technology, cost, including the impact on the Earth's ecosphere, the realization of the artificial moon still needs to be demonstrated several times. Although nothing can be exhaustive, but this will have a multifaceted "chain reaction" of things still need to be carefully considered.

It is worth mentioning that, as we said in the previous article, countries such as the United States and the former Soviet Union, have already put forward related ideas as early as the last century. The former Soviet Union, with its strong action, really did it at the time, but their artificial moon plan eventually "died". How did this happen? Let's see how they did it.

The aborted "artificial moon" in the former Soviet Union

The U.S. and Soviet Union in the last century, we all understand that the two superpowers have been competing to see who created more "miracles". The former Soviet Union was convinced that miracles must be "man-made". So in the 1990s, the idea of an artificial moon was proposed.

Of course, according to the information. At that time, people in the alpine region, because they live in the dark, alcoholism and depression rate is very serious, so the former Soviet Union wanted to make the artificial moon, to drive away the darkness there, to bring light to the people. For this reason they designed a lot of programs, and there is even a "necklace plan".

The "necklace" plan is to launch up to 200 64-meter-diameter mirrors into space, which will provide several cities with hours of nighttime illumination. 200 moons are like a necklace around the Earth, shining brightly.

It must be said that the former Soviet Union has a really rich imagination, which can be seen from the fact that they once tried to use artillery shells to blow up rockets into the sky.

Unfortunately, after finalizing this plan, the former Soviet Union collapsed before it could begin to make a big splash. So Russia inherited this dream and started the "New Light" experiment. This New Light is a moon-like experimental device with a huge reflector disc, which was handed over to the Progress M-15 cargo ship to carry the flight.

On February 4, 1993, this artificial moon experiment began, and really let people see this spooky moon. However, after it circled around, the experiment was cancelled. The artificial moon project, so the sky "sightseeing" a circle, so many people look at two eyes, completely aborted.