China plans to implement a plan called "ambitious" to replace street luminescence with real moonlight, combined with another powerful but artificial glow. China plans to launch a satellite into space in 2020 to double the real moonlight at night, which is set to light about 80 kilometers below ground and will be able to replace street lighting.
China announced its new project during the national innovation and entrepreneurial activity held in Chengdu last week. The head of the Chengdu Research Institute of Space Science and Microelectronics Technology Ltd., Wu Chunfeng, explained that the luminance test began years ago, and the technology is now fully ready.
The satellite is scheduled to illuminate Chengdu, one of the three most populous cities in western China, with some 14.5 million people living there.
The light produced by the satellite will be eight times more bright than the real moon, and it can be controlled and tuned for 10 to 80 kilometers of illumination, the Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday.
Some fear that the moon's unreal lights may adversely affect the daily lives of some animals.
But the director of the Institute of Optics at the Harbin Institute of Technology's space college, Kang Win Min, said the satellite light would be like dusk, so it should not affect animals' lives.
But the director of the Institute of Optics at the Harbin Institute of Technology's space college, Kang Win Min, said the satellite light would be like dusk, so it should not affect animals' lives.
The idea of the satellite came from a French artist, who imagined hanging a necklace made of mirrors above the ground, which could reflect the sun in the streets of Paris all year round.