Eight times brighter than the moon! Why is the artificial moon originally scheduled to be launched in 2020 missing?

In 20 18, Sichuan Tianfu System Science Research Association put forward a plan of "artificial moon", and planned to launch the first artificial moon in 2020 and two more artificial moons in 2022.

By then, three moons will be replaced to realize 24-hour uninterrupted lighting in Chengdu, and the intensity of artificial moon is 8 times that of ordinary moonlight.

However, now that 2020 has passed, why haven't scientists put forward plans for artificial moons?

Artificial Moon Actually, the idea of "artificial moon" originally came from the idea of a French artist. He suggested that if you hang a necklace made of mirrors on the earth, you can reflect sunlight to every place in Paris all year round.

But the actual artificial moon, as its name implies, is the moon created by scientists. To put it simply, it is to launch an artificial lighting satellite with a large space reflector in space, so as to reach the energy luminosity beyond that provided by the normal moon, and some experts say that the illumination of the artificial moon will be eight times that of the normal moon, and it can also provide lighting energy for 24 hours.

Russia has carried out a project similar to the "artificial moon". In the 1990s or so, Russia began a project code-named "Znamya", now called "artificial moon", which released a mirror in space to reflect sunlight.

1On February 4th, 993, Russia carried out the "artificial moon" experiment of Flag-2 on the Mir space station. The mirror consists of eight aluminum plates with a thickness of 5 microns, and each aluminum plate is connected by 32 wires. When the mirror package is released, it will unfold under the action of centrifugal force.

It is reported that the mirror surface launched by Russia is about 20 meters in diameter, and a light spot with a diameter of about 4000 meters was successfully produced on the ground at that time.

This success has brought great confidence to Russia, so on February 4, 1999, they conducted the second experiment. This time, the diameter of the mirror was about 25 meters, but unfortunately, during the release process, the mirror did not open in the normal way and the experiment ended in failure.

The reason why Russia wants to carry out the "artificial moon" plan is because some parts of Russia are close to the North Pole, and the extreme phenomenon of day and night is obvious. Once the extreme night phenomenon comes, some areas will fall into darkness for months.

Therefore, Russian scientists put forward the plan of "artificial moon", hoping that when the artificial moon comes, it will bring light to people in the extreme night area, but this experiment not only failed to improve the situation in Russia, but also lost hundreds of millions of dollars.

China's "Artificial Moon" Project 20 18, Sichuan Tianfu System Science Research Association also conceived an "Artificial Moon" project, which has attracted much attention since it was put forward.

According to the plan, the first satellite will be launched in 2020, and two more satellites will be launched in 2022, which will be deployed at a height of 500 kilometers in the earth's near orbit. By then, the giant mirrors carried by these three satellites will divide the orbital plane into 360 degrees and run alternately, providing 24-hour uninterrupted illumination for the range of 3,600 to 6,400 square kilometers on the earth's surface. The lighting is less than 80 kilometers in diameter, and the brightness is 8 times that of the full moon.

According to experts' preliminary calculation, if the "artificial moon" is successful, it can save at least1200 million yuan per year. But in fact, the "artificial moon" plan of China Tianfu System Science Research Association is just an idea, and there is no actual action so far, that is to say, the "artificial moon" is just a plan and has not been implemented.

Our country can't make an artificial moon yet. The first problem is the mirror. Regardless of reflectivity, it is considered that 100% reflects sunlight, but the light intensity must be more than 8 times that of moonlight, and the orbital height must be 500 kilometers. Then the mirror surface of this artificial moon must be at least 100 square meter!

And how is such a big mirror made, polished, unfolded and launched? Especially when the mirror unfolded, Russia failed because the mirror did not unfold.

Secondly, the reflection of sunlight in rainy weather, because in rainy weather, light is not easy to penetrate the thickness of clouds in rainy weather, so if you want to reflect sunlight, you have to take the weather reasons into account, at least you can penetrate thick clouds in rainy weather.

Then there is the question of flight orbit. In order to achieve 24-hour uninterrupted lighting, the artificial moon must continuously orbit the earth, which means that the artificial moon will orbit the earth once every 94.5 minutes (about 16 times a day), which is simply impossible!

Finally, there is the manufacture and cost of artificial moon. The cost of making an artificial moon alone should not be underestimated. According to experts' conservative estimation, the cost of an artificial moon will exceed hundreds of millions of dollars, and a series of operations in this plan involve the most advanced space technology at present, such as precise control of spacecraft orbit and attitude, which is very difficult. ...

Actually, the artificial moon in China is to save electricity. Compared with Russian lighting for high-latitude polar nights, the artificial moon in China seems unnecessary. In fact, it is unreasonable to spend a lot of money to deploy several mirrors in low earth orbit to save electricity.