The FCC says the most controversial aspect of Reflect Orbital's Earendil-1 satellite, its giant mirror, falls outside its authority since the regulator mainly focuses on radio spectrum.
I don’t like the concept of reflect orbital, but it’s compelling. The official goals set aside and thinking conspicary for a second , we’re talking about Murica after all:
In a future large scale, it could be the ultimate (psychological) warfare tool. Don’t need to drop bombs to break a country. You just steal their night. Forcing an entire region into permanent daylight would completely wreck human circadian rhythms, kill crops, and devastate entire local ecosystems.
Best part for the military? It’s technically “non-lethal.” You can force a nation to its knees without the PR nightmare of blowing up hospitals and schools. Forcing Ukraine to a peace deal on US terms? Iran? Gaza? easy. Just “torture” the entire population at once by sleep deprivation and famine, until the leaders give in.
Steerable mirrors as massive orbital dazzlers, too. Rapidly fluctuating the light intensity or strobing it could completely blind enemy drones, infrared sensors, and targeting optics. The sun emitts massive amounts of IR. Reflecting that onto targeting sensors would drive their exposure algorithms insane.
And good luck defending against it. Sure, radar can spot the giant reflective metal foil, but what then? Fire a multi-million-dollar ASAT missile at a cheap mirror when there are 49999 more of them? Hit it with kinetic weapons? a railgun? Congrats, you poked a tiny pencil hole in a giant Mylar sheet. It wouldn’t even faze the one sattelite that was hit. Even if you somehow manage to shoot down 100 of them, there are 49,900 more just waiting to seamlessly take over.
Last but not least, let’s be real. There is zero chance a random startup gets the insane funding to mass-produce and launch a 50,000-satellite constellation in the next 10 years to generate a tiny bit of solar power or illumination at night. On the other hand considering ai companies… Still, it just doesn’t add up for me. I’m almost sure, Pentagon, DARPA, or someone else is heavily backing this as a (maybe military?) project.
It’s not that i believe something like this will happen for real. It is fun to think of a worst-case or of “scientifically plausible” conspiracy. I do wanna watch that movie, though.
I don’t like the concept of reflect orbital, but it’s compelling. The official goals set aside and thinking conspicary for a second , we’re talking about Murica after all:
In a future large scale, it could be the ultimate (psychological) warfare tool. Don’t need to drop bombs to break a country. You just steal their night. Forcing an entire region into permanent daylight would completely wreck human circadian rhythms, kill crops, and devastate entire local ecosystems. Best part for the military? It’s technically “non-lethal.” You can force a nation to its knees without the PR nightmare of blowing up hospitals and schools. Forcing Ukraine to a peace deal on US terms? Iran? Gaza? easy. Just “torture” the entire population at once by sleep deprivation and famine, until the leaders give in.
Steerable mirrors as massive orbital dazzlers, too. Rapidly fluctuating the light intensity or strobing it could completely blind enemy drones, infrared sensors, and targeting optics. The sun emitts massive amounts of IR. Reflecting that onto targeting sensors would drive their exposure algorithms insane.
And good luck defending against it. Sure, radar can spot the giant reflective metal foil, but what then? Fire a multi-million-dollar ASAT missile at a cheap mirror when there are 49999 more of them? Hit it with kinetic weapons? a railgun? Congrats, you poked a tiny pencil hole in a giant Mylar sheet. It wouldn’t even faze the one sattelite that was hit. Even if you somehow manage to shoot down 100 of them, there are 49,900 more just waiting to seamlessly take over.
Last but not least, let’s be real. There is zero chance a random startup gets the insane funding to mass-produce and launch a 50,000-satellite constellation in the next 10 years to generate a tiny bit of solar power or illumination at night. On the other hand considering ai companies… Still, it just doesn’t add up for me. I’m almost sure, Pentagon, DARPA, or someone else is heavily backing this as a (maybe military?) project.
What a load of nonsense. Just coming from Finland. They basically have no night right now. No space mirrors required and people looked perfectly sane.
Jesse, what the fuck are you talking about?
It’s not that i believe something like this will happen for real. It is fun to think of a worst-case or of “scientifically plausible” conspiracy. I do wanna watch that movie, though.
That sounds horrific. Could we just, not?