Chinese city to launch artificial moon to help with night lighting

The city of Chengdu, located in southern China, has a bold plan for improving its night lighting: building an “artificial moon” capable of providing eight times more light than our natural satellite by reflecting sunlight on the our planet. According to Wu Chunfeng, president of Chengdu Aerospace Science Institute, this lighting device will be launched in 2020.

The technology has been under test for a few years now and is now considered mature enough to finally be put into practice.

The purpose of the artificial satellite is to create extra lighting to complement moonlight on Chengdu nights, to the point of replacing the public street lighting system. The fake moon will be able to cover a space of 10 to 80 kilometers in diameter with high light focus accuracy.

The technology has been under test for a few years and is now considered mature enough to finally be put into practice. As for the impacts that artificial lighting can cause, project officials have already stated that it will not interfere with animal life as it resembles twilight light, but nothing has been said about the impact on humans. No other information, about the release itself or other details, was given at the project disclosure event.

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Chinese city to launch artificial moon to assist in night lighting via TecMundo