US startup wants to sell sunlight from space at night

The employee said $2,000 would have kept him. (Image credit: Pixabay)

• Reflect Orbital plans satellites to redirect sunlight at night
• Prototype satellite with 60-foot mirror to be launched first
• Concerns raised about precision, environment, and regulations

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A US startup is pitching a plan that sounds like science fiction at first glance. It wants to reflect sunlight from space back onto Earth at night and sell that light commercially.

The company, Reflect Orbital, says it plans to deploy a network of small satellites equipped with mirrors that can redirect sunlight to specific locations on the ground after sunset. The idea is to offer “on-demand daylight” for uses like construction, mining, large events or even disaster response.

According to the company’s proposal, each mirror could provide focused light for a limited area, with pricing expected to be around USD 5,000 an hour, roughly Rs 5 lakh. The service would likely be offered through long-term contracts, with a minimum number of hours booked in advance.

As a first step, the startup is seeking approval to launch a prototype satellite carrying a mirror about 60 feet wide. If that works, it plans to scale up significantly, eventually putting tens of thousands of such mirrors into orbit.

The pitch is straightforward. Instead of relying on artificial lighting, which consumes power and infrastructure, sunlight could be redirected directly from space. On paper, it sounds useful. You could cut down on artificial lighting in some cases and bring light to places where setting up infrastructure is difficult.

But once you get past the pitch, a lot of questions come up.

For one, how precise can this really be? Redirecting sunlight from space is not like switching on a streetlight. If the alignment is even slightly off, the light could spill into areas where it is not wanted. There is also concern from astronomers, who are already dealing with interference from satellite constellations. Bright reflections moving across the sky could make observations even harder.

There is also the environmental angle. Even limited bursts of artificial daylight could affect animals that rely on natural light cycles. Night is not just darkness, it plays a role in how ecosystems function.

Then there is the regulatory side, which is not simple either. Space is getting crowded, and putting thousands of reflective satellites into orbit would need approvals across multiple countries and agencies. That process alone could take years.

At this point, the project is still early. The first real test will be the prototype launch, which will show whether this works outside controlled conditions.

Even so, the idea says something about where things are going. Space is no longer just about communication or GPS. Companies are starting to treat it as a place to build entirely new kinds of services, some of which would have sounded far-fetched not too long ago.