Reflect Orbital Plans to Light Up Our Lives

Reflect Orbital has captured the attention of many after announcing plans to deliver sunlight after dark. The plan? To use satellites equipped with ultra-reflective mylar mirrors to bounce sunlight back to Earth using GPS to locate the position of its customers on Earth.

CEO Ben Nowack said that the overall goal of Reflect Orbital to deploy 57 small satellites, each carrying 33-square-foot mirrors. The company conducted test runs, reflecting sunlight onto solar panels from a distance of nearly 800 feet, generating about 500 watts of energy per square meter. 

The startup has pitched the idea as a potential solution to revolutionize the solar energy industry with continuous power generation even during nighttime hours.

The company website mentions that the application for their sunlight services will shut down this October with limited availability. Each deployment of sunlight will last approximately four minutes covering an area with a diameter of about three miles. 

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