China On the Way to Launch Its Own Moon

Image result for moon
src:wiki

The Chinese have planned to make use of their own Moon to light up the streets. China has planned to launch an artificial satellite in the Earth's atmosphere as a source of light to complement the Moon's light.

This step has been taken to cut-down the expenditure on the streetlights being used. The artificial Moon will replicate the light of the streetlamps and work in tandem with the natural satellite. The artificial Moon is expected to be eight times brighter than the natural one. The project will focus on the urban areas of the country and be really helpful in the hour of natural disaster when there is a total powercut.

China has actually proposed to launch the project by 2020 over Chengdu, a city in southwestern Sichuan province.The project comprises of the launch of a testing satellite over Chengdu in 2020 followed by a set of two more satellites in 2022 which "will be the real deal with great civic and commercial potential", said Wu Chunfeng, head of the Tian Fu New Area Science Society. The project is estimated to lower the electricity bill of the government by about $173 million per year when the area within the circle of 80 km of radius in Chengdu is lit up.

Image result for pagoda with moon
src:videohive

If the country is able to do as it plans to, the time is not far when there will be two moons shining up in the night-sky. These moons will not only be visible to the people of China but also to the neighboring nations too. Although due to the little knowledge about the size, shape, brightness and its position in space the experts have not been able to predict whether this will be possible or not.

Though the scientists already seem to have the blue-print of the project, the project is under consideration for the negative effects it would cause to the natural environment. The Chinese have therefore decided to first test the project on a deserted area having no habitation. All effects it would cause to the environment are under observation. For eg, the Australian corals lay their eggs depending on the light of the Moon, nocturnal eagle owls communicate with each othe ron the basis of the moonlight.

Various other similar projects have been taken up in the past also but were dropped. The Russians, as always , were the first one to experiment this in 1990s. They had decided to lit up the parts of their country deprived of sunlight through the artificial moon. But the project was dropped off in 1999 after the equipments failed to unfold and got burnt up in the Earth's atmosphere. The second were the Americans who decided to place a reflective satellite in the orbit around the Earth. This project was also called off due to the excessive light pollution being caused by it disturbing the natural balance of the ecosystem.

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